Founded in 1853 by pioneering Scottish Presbyterians, Monmouth
College brought the blessings of civilization to the people of the rough
frontier and spoke of traditional values to those who were shaping a new world.
Though today our life knows different frontiers, the College still thinks of its
purpose as its founders did --preserving and celebrating the traditions that
have been entrusted to it while promoting discovery and investigation. Although
the student body today includes many who come from far beyond western Illinois,
Monmouth continues to have a strong sense of identity with its local community
and with the region in which it is proudly rooted.
Unusual for the time, Monmouth College was created a coeducational institution.
Indeed, it was one of the first colleges to give women equality with men, and,
not surprisingly, women’s interests have been prominent in the College’s
history.
Monmouth has chosen to remain the collegiate institution it was founded to be,
preferring not to expand into a university. Monmouth continues to insist that
its purpose is not to pursue knowledge for its own sake, in the university’s
fashion, but to encourage students to seek values by bringing together knowledge
and belief in a coherent whole. The College has neither graduate nor
professional schools and is therefore able to focus its resources entirely on
its undergraduates. In true collegiate fashion, Monmouth stresses the unity and
equality of the academic disciplines that compose it. The College’s chief
interest lies in providing its students a generous understanding of human
experience; individual disciplines receive their sense of direction from that
larger commitment rather than permitting the specific interest to become an end
in itself.
Check out these other interesting MC Historical Pages: