Grinnell College

▪ college, Grinnell, Iowa, United States

      private, coeducational institution of higher learning in Grinnell, Iowa, U.S. It is a liberal arts college that awards the bachelor of arts degree only. Students can study abroad in a number of countries in Asia, Europe, Latin America, Australia, the Middle East, and Africa. Facilities include the 365-acre (148-hectare) Conrad Environmental Research Area. Total enrollment is approximately 1,300.

      It was founded by a group of transplanted New Englanders and Congregational ministers in Davenport, Iowa, in 1846 and was the first four-year liberal arts college west of the Mississippi River. Initially called Iowa College, it was moved to Grinnell and merged with Grinnell University in 1858; the school was renamed Grinnell College in 1909 for city and school benefactor Josiah Bushnell Grinnell. Women were first admitted to the college after the American Civil War, and it was one of the first schools in the country to admit African Americans. Later in the century Grinnell became one of the first undergraduate colleges in the United States to establish a political science department, and it was the first college west of the Mississippi to host collegiate baseball and American football games. Notable alumni include New Deal statesman Harry Hopkins (Hopkins, Harry L), actor Gary Cooper (Cooper, Gary), computer engineer Robert Noyce (Noyce, Robert), and Nobel Prize-winning biochemist Thomas Cech (Cech, Thomas Robert).

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