Butler University: A Sesquicentennial History
Founded in 1855 by the Disciples of Christ as North Western ChristianUniversity, Butler University was renamed in 1877 for Ovid Butler, an attorney andabolitionist, who had been the chief moving force behind the school's creation. Fromthe start, the school was conceived as "an institution of learning of thehighest class... for the instructing of the students in every branch of liberal andprofessional education." While "Christian faith and Christian morality astaught in the sacred Scriptures," was part of the original charter, over theyears the school developed along the lines of the classic collegiate university. Nowwith a student body of over 3,000 in its college of liberal arts and sciences andfive professional schools, Butler University is an important part of Indiana'seducational, sports, and cultural landscapes.