Columbia University - City of New York

The Columbia University in the City of New York is a private university, the oldest institution of higher education in New York and the fifth-oldest in the United States. It is considered one of the most prestigious universities in the world. Its four campuses are located in and around New York City.

Most of Columbia's undergraduate and graduate studies are conducted in the Morningside Heights neighborhood on the West Side of Upper Manhattan. Other locations include the Irving Medical Center campus, the Manhattanville campus, the Baker Athletics Complex at the northern tip of Manhattan and the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory in Palisades, Rockland County, New York State.

Columbia University was founded in 1754 as King’s College by royal charter of King George II of Great Britain. On July 17, 1754, Samuel Johnson (1696-1772), the College’s first president, held the first classes for eight students in the English charity school, adjoining Trinity Church in Manhattan. Johnson was an Anglican minister and Yale graduate. In 1763, Myles Cooper (1735-1785), an Anglican priest educated at the Queen's College, Oxford, succeeded Johnson as the President of King's College.

The cornerstone of the first King's College own building was laid in 1755 in the plot bounded by Church Street, Chapel Street and Murray Street. The section of Robinson Street (the name changed to Park Place in 1813), between Church and Chapel streets, was closed and became part of the College's site. King's College moved to the building in 1760. There were extensions and additions to the site. In 1767, the medical school opened under the leadership of Samuel Bard, granting the first MD degree in the British colonies of America in 1770.

King's College suspended instruction in 1776, due to the Independency War. In 1784 it reopened as Columbia College. Three years later, the College adopted a new charter, granting oversight of the institution to a private board of trustees. In 1787, William Samuel Johnson, son of Samuel Johnson, was elected as the College’s third president. In 1789, George Washington, President of the United States of America attended Columbia’s commencement.

By mid-19th century, commerce was crowding the College area. In 1857, the College moved from Park Place in lower Manhattan to a site between Madison Avenue and Fourth Avenue (now Park Avenue), and 49th and 50th streets. The Law School was founded in 1858. Six years later, the School of Mines, the first mining and metallurgy school in the country, was established.

Columbia began participating in intercollegiate sports in 1867 with a baseball team, followed by a football team in 1870, and a rowing team in 1873. The Columbia Daily Spectator, the student newspaper, began publication in 1877. The Graduate School of Arts and Sciences was founded in 1880. The Barnard College for Women opened in 1889.

In 1896, the College moved from 49th Street to its present location in Morningside Heights. The trustees officially authorized the use of the name Columbia University. Low Library ceased being a library in the 1930s. Today it houses administrative offices, including the office of the president.