Yale University, at New Haven, Conn.; coeducational. Chartered as a collegiate school for men in 1701 largely as a result of the efforts of James Pierpont, it opened at Killingworth (now Clinton) in 1702, moved (1707) to Saybrook (now Old Saybrook), and in 1716 was finally moved to its permanent location in New Haven. Its name was changed to Yale College in 1718 in honor of Elihu Yale, who had been persuaded by Cotton Mather and Jeremiah Dummer to contribute to the college. Its present charter was drawn up in 1745.

Extensive changes were made in the college during the 19th cent. Numerous schools were added, such as medicine (1813), divinity (1822), law (1824), graduate studies (1847), and art and architecture (1865); as a result in 1887, under Timothy Dwight, the college was renamed Yale Univ. Later, other schools were added: music (1894), forestry (1900), nursing (1923), engineering (1932), drama (1955), and organization and management (1975). Women were admitted to the graduate school in 1892 and to Yale College in 1969. Further expansion included the founding of the Institute of Far Eastern Languages. The Yale Library, one of the largest in the nation, houses a large number of important collections, including the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library. Also notable are the Peabody Museum of Natural History, the well-known Yale Art Gallery, and the Yale Center for British Art. The Yale Univ. Press was established in 1908.

Private university in New Haven, Conn., a traditional member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1701, it is the third-oldest institution of higher learning in the U.S. Yale's initial curriculum emphasized classical studies and strict adherence to orthodox Puritanism. Medical, divinity, and law schools were added in 1810, 1822, and 1824. The geologist Benjamin Silliman (1779–1864), who taught at Yale from 1802 to 1853, did much to expand the experimental and applied sciences. Beginning in the mid 19th century, schools of architecture, art, drama, forestry, graduate studies, management, music, and nursing were organized. Yale's library, with more than 10 million volumes, is one of the largest in the U.S. Its extensive art galleries were established in 1832. The Peabody Museum of Natural History houses important collections of paleontology, archaeology, and ethnology. Yale is one of the most highly regarded schools in the nation; its graduates have included several U.S. presidents.

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