In the 1890s, the Board of Trustees of the not-yet-built University of Chicago had just elected Rainey Harper to be its first president, and later, he would formally accept the position. Harper left a secure position at Yale University to accept the presidency of a university that was nothing more than an idea, a board of trustees, and the…

Colleges were founded in many cities of Victorian England. Some failed; others became the civic universities of twentieth-century Britain. How these civic universities were governed is described. Specifically discussed are courts, councils, trustees, faculty, powers, curriculum, appointments, finance, principals, and constitutions. (RM)