On the eve of MUs School of Journalism centennial celebration, the University is releasing a Missouri Journalism Centennial Timeline. The timeline will provide a visual history of the school containing more than 150 rare images in a decade by decade look at the world’s first journalism school. Each month, the university will release a visual history of a given decade. So far the university has released a timeline for the years 1908-1919, 1920-1929 and 1930-1939.
Here is a brief outline of these decades history:
Sept 14 1908 – Founding dean, Walter Williams opened the world’s first school of journalism. Students and teachers faced the same pressures as working reporters, including tight deadlines and rushed editors. By the end of the first day students and faculty editors had published the University Missourian.
1909 – Charles Arnold was the first graduate from the Missouri School of Journalism. one year later (1910) Mary Gentry Paxton (later Keeley) was the first woman to graduate. Both recieved a Bachelor of Science in Journalism as the Bachelor of Journalism was not yet offered.
1913 – Bachelor of Journalism degree offered. Also photographics training was now offered.
1914 – Willaims introduced the Journalist’s Creed.
The 1920s – the years of prosperity. The Jay H. Neff Hall was completed. It provided the growing student body with its very own printing press. As a result the original six-column, four-page Missourian became an eight-column, eight-page newspaper.
1923 – the Missourian was renamed the Columbia Missourian, the name the paper holds today.
1924 – Magazine Journalism training offered.
1930s – Walter Williams was named the University President. He later died in 1935; however, he lived long enough to celebrate the school’s 25th anniversary (1933). Williams also left behind the legacy of the Missouri Honour Medal (established 1930). The first recipients of the medal were: Percy S. Bullen (London Daily Telegraph); Ward A. Neff (Corn Belt Farm Dailies); E. W. Stephens (The Columbia Herald, MO).
1934 - First PhD in Journalism awarded to Robert Lloyd Housman. His dissertation was titled “Early Montana Territorial Journalism as a Reflection of the American Frontier in the New Northwest.”
1936 – Radio journalism training established.
1937 - The Journalism School named the Walter Williams Hall in Williams honour.
Next up 1940-1949 which will be released in March. Other scheduled release dates include:
- 1940-1949: March 2008
- 1950-1959: April 2008
- 1960-1969: May 2008
- 1970-1979: June 2008
- 1980-1989 and
1990-1999: July 2008 - 2000-2007 and
- 2008-Beyond: August 2008
Whitney Harris
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