Ingenious: First in class
When Nathan Ricker graduated from the University of Illinois in 1873, he became the first person in the nation to receive a degree in architecture. He might have achieved that distinction even sooner but...
Small Wonders
The stones vault overhead to form a basalt arch, named for President Theodore Roosevelt, who laid the cornerstone in 1903. Soon the road starts to climb, switchbacking up and up, between the Gardner River...
Saving Pretzel
On the day we meet Pretzel, the weather is chilly and clear in Hammond, Ind., where she lives with her owners, Donna and Dave Gescheidler. Their living room décor anticipates Christmas, less than two...
Time Traveler
Who says dead men tell no tales? Consider Shuká Káa, a young man who met his demise more than 10,000 years ago while hunting a bear. Thanks to anthropologists and geneticists, Shuká Káa has...
Big Beats
On Oct. 31, 1925, a cold damp day, an underachieving Fighting Illini football team was in Philadelphia, facing the powerful Quakers of the University of Pennsylvania. Illinois’ record was a desultory 1 and 2,...
Memory Lane: Dorm life at the University of Illinois
Today known as Clark, Lundgren and Barton Halls, Fourth Street Residence Halls became the first all-male dormitories on the Illinois campus when they opened in 1941. Prior to their construction, male students traditionally lived...
Lady in Waiting
Early on the morning of Aug. 7, 2012, after many long seasons of corrosive Midwestern weather and a short summer of delay, an hour like no other came to the University of Illinois. Alma...
Memory Lane: Registering for classes in a pre-internet era
“I have an 8 a.m. English; does anybody have a 9 a.m.?” Before the days of point, click and done, registering for classes at the University of Illinois went something like this: “All I...
