Knox College is a private liberal arts college in Galesburg, Illinois, United States. It was founded in 1837 by anti-slavery advocates and has ties to the Underground Railroad movement. With over 1,100 students enrolled representing 43 states and 56 countries, Knox College offers 99 majors and minors. Knox College is a member of Colleges That Change Lives.
History
Knox College was founded as Knox Manual Labor College by Presbyterians and Congregationalists from New York state organized by George Washington Gale, who previously had founded the Oneida Institute. Gale in 1836 released a "Circular and Plan" for the founding of a manual labor colleges which described a subscriber- and land purchase-based method of funding. His plan resulted in the founding of at least one school when in 1837 subscribers settled in what became Galesburg and began to build the college. The first president was Hiram Huntington Kellogg Sr., who went on a book-buying trip to England; the books he acquired form the Knox Manual Labor College Collection. Knox opened to students in 1843 and was one of the earliest colleges to admit Black people and women. Like Gale, many of the founders of Knox College and residents of Galesburg were abolitionists and actively supported the Underground Railroad.
Knox has been known by its present name since 1857. The name came about as a compromise among its founders. Though founded by a colony of Presbyterians and Congregationalists, the county where the college stands was already named Knox County, after Henry Knox, the first United States Secretary of War. Arguments have also been made that the college was named for Calvinist leader John Knox. It is not certain for which Knox it was named (if not both). George Candee Gale, a great-great-grandson of two of the founders, explains that
Contrary to general belief, Knox was not named for either General Knox or the Scottish Presbyterian Knox, according to my father.... Some wanted the college named for one Knox, some for the other; so they compromised on KNOX. Certainly most of them were pious enough to want the churchman, and fighters enough to want the soldier as well.Calkins, Earnest Elmo. (1937) They Broke the Prairie, University of Illinois Press.
Jonathan Blanchard's presidency led the school out of debt, but ignited a controversy about whether the school was loyal to the Congregational church or the Presbyterians. Gale and Blanchard were forced out of the school as a result.
In 1841, a female seminary was built. The building burned down in 1843 but the college continued to provide classes for women, first in co-ed preparatory classes, then, by 1850, in the Female Collegiate Department. In 1857, a new 5-story Female Seminary building was constructed which accommodated up to ninety women. In 1867, the Knox College president William Curtis assaulted the Principal of the Female Seminary, Ada Howard. Curtis resigned after students protested and conducted a sit-down strike. In 1872, women were awarded college degrees for the first time at the college. As more women began to attend, the building was expanded in 1885. The addition was named Whiting Hall in recognition of the Principal of the Female Seminary, M. H. Whiting. In 1891, the college became fully co-ed. In 1892, the building was expanded again and the entire building became Whiting Hall. It remained the sole women's dormitory until after World War II.H. M. Muelder, "Whiting Hall, Formerly the Female Seminary of Knox College," History by H. M. Muelder Folder, Whiting Hall box, Special Collections and Archives, Henry M. Seymour Library, Knox College, Galesburg
History of Abolitionism Like Gale, many of the founders of Knox College and residents of Galesburg were abolitionists and actively supported the Underground Railroad. Galesburg had several anti-slavery societies and was a stop on the Underground Railroad. Knox was officially recognized by the National Park Service as a member of the Underground Railroad Network to Freedom Program in 2006.
The Lincoln-Douglas Debates Knox was the site of the fifth debate between Abraham Lincoln and Stephen A. Douglas in 1858. The Old Main building is the only extant site of the debates. Two years after the debates, during his presidential campaign, Lincoln was awarded Knox College's first honorary doctorate, a Doctor of Laws degree announced at the commencement exercises of July 5, 1860.Muelder, Hermann R. (1959) Fighters for Freedom, Columbia University Press.
Lincoln Studies Center Rodney Davis and Douglas L. Wilson established the Lincoln Studies Center in 1998. The center deals with issues relating to Lincoln's life and legacy. In August 2009, the National Endowment for the Humanities "We the People" initiative awarded Knox $850,000, "a grant that will provide the base of a permanent endowment for the Center."
Academics
Knox offers over 42 majors and 51 minors programs, concluding in Bachelors of Arts or Bachelors of Science degrees. It employs a non-traditional 3–3 academic calendar rather than a semester-based approach. In each of the three 10-week terms, students take three courses. Faculty members teach two courses each term, giving them more time for one-on-one mentoring. All courses of study at Knox contain common elements, including an educational plan that students design. Students also participate in Immersive Terms, where students work on one subject in-depth.
In 2007 the Peace Corps launched a program at Knox, establishing the Peace Corps Preparatory Program, the first of its kind in the country; Knox has several cooperative programs with other universities, including engineering and preprofessional paths like law and medicine.
Immersion Experiences Knox curriculum includes Immersion Experiences, where students spend an entire term on one discipline.
Knox is the only undergraduate program in the country to offer Repertory Theatre Immersive Term, or Rep Term, the repertory theatre experience where students learn how to start and manage a theatre company.
Knox is known for its Green Oaks term, an interdisciplinary program at the Green Oaks Biological Field Station. The Green Field Station began in 1955 under the guidance of zoologists Paul Shepard and George Ward.
Other immersive terms include clinical psychology, open studio (art), StartUp (business), Japan term, Summer Scholars, and short-term experiences from one to three weeks. Short-term experiences include the Chicago Term, where students spend a three-week internship in Chicago.
The three most popular majors at Knox, based on 2024 graduates, were Business Administration and Management, Computer Science, and Creative Writing.
Admission As of Fall 2024, Knox College has an acceptance rate of 71%, with half of applicants admitted with SAT scores between 1180 and 1440, or an ACT score between 21 and 32. Graduation rate was 67%.
As of 2023, 52% of first-year students received financial aid. Knox offers a $2,000 "Power of Experience Grant" to every senior. Knox also offers 100% tuition-free aid to qualifying Illinois residents through its Prairie Promise program.
Student body 1,136 students were enrolled at Knox in September 2024. 52% of U.S. students are of color and 27% are international students. The gender distribution is about equal, with 50.3% being male and 49.7% female.
Student life
Traditions
Pumphandle is an annual tradition dating back to 1885 during which new members of the community are welcomed to Knox. On the afternoon before the start of the academic year, all members of the Knox community gather on the south lawn outside Old Main. The president of the college "leads the welcoming line, shaking each person's hand in turn. Everyone shakes the hands of those who have gone before, and the line grows, snaking around the campus."
Flunk Day is an annual spring carnival. Classes are canceled for the day as the student body turns its attention to a joke issue of the student newspaper, live music, inflatable bounce rooms, petting zoos, a mud pit, a paint fight, and a seniors vs faculty softball game. The date of Flunk Day changes every year and is a secret until the entire student body is awakened at around 5am on the day.
Bronze Turkey Game is a yearly football game between rivalries Knox College and Monmouth College, held around Thanksgiving. It began in the 1880's.
International Fair, also called I-Fair, is held annually on campus, with a different theme each year incorporating various cultures and international traditions.
Clubs and Organizations Knox has over 80 student organizations. It is also home to nine Greek-letter organizations.
Student media The Knox Student — a weekly student newspaper Catch — a literary magazine and oldest continuously published literary journal in the country The Common Room — online journal of literary criticism Quiver — a literary magazine of genre fiction X Journal— a visual arts journal
Knox's radio station is WVKC, and was established in 1957. It is on the fourth floor of George Davis Hall, a former science building that now houses the social science and language departments. Its frequency in Galesburg is 90.7.
Knox also runs Caxton Club, a student-run literary organization named after the first English printer, William Caxton. It brings brings published writers to campus for readings and special events.
Awards & Recognitions The Knox Student has won numerous awards as one of the best college newspapers in the state of the Illinois, including numerous first-place category awards and general excellence awards from the Illinois College Press Association.
Catch earned third place from the Association of Writers and Writing Programs (AWP) for its Spring 2025 edition, as well as other recognitions from the Associated Collegiate Press and Coordinating Council of Literary Magazines.
WVKC radio was featured on the Princeton Review "Best College Radio Stations" list several years.
Athletics
The Knox College mascot is a fox named Blaze and was introduced in 2016. Knox's nickname for its athletics teams was renamed Prairie Fire in 1993 due to sensitivity about its previous nickname, the Old Siwash. The word Siwash is a corruption of the French term "sauvage." This was a derogatory term used by European traders to refer to indigenous people.
The term Old Siwash was popularized by George Helgesen Fitch (Knox Class of 1897) in his Saturday Evening Post articles and a book At Good Old Siwash. The term was widely used to denote small midwestern liberal arts colleges because of the popularity of Fitch's writings.
The Prairie Fire refers to the annual spring burning of the prairie lands at Green Oaks. First conducted in the 1950s by Knox professor Paul Shepard, the burn protects prairie grasses from intrusions of woodland scrub and competition with other species.
Knox is a member of the Midwest Conference of the NCAA at the Division III level. The school offers 21 men's and women's varsity sports, as well as 11 club sports, including water polo, fencing, and ultimate frisbee.
The Bronze Turkey trophy, awarded annually to the victor of their rivalry game with Monmouth College, was created in 1928 and is the brainchild of Knox football alumnus Bill Collins. ESPN named the Bronze Turkey the fifth "most bizarre college football rivalry trophy". Monmouth has dominated the rivalry in recent years, with Knox last winning the game in 1998.
Campus
Knox College has 45 academic and residential buildings on its campus. It has electron microscopes, a gas chromatograph mass spectrometer, a 17-inch (0.43 m) Corrected Dall-Kirkham reflector telescope manufactured by Planewave Instruments, and a Nuclear Magnetic Resonance spectrometer. There is also a complete skeleton of a 55-foot-long Fin whale on display in the atrium of the Science-Mathematics building.
The state-of-the-art Knox College Whitcomb Art Center opened in 2017.