Learn and listen to the Songs of Grinnell.

Grinnell's founding was part of the history of the American West. Founded on the prairie, from the beginning the College reflected the pioneering spirit common to the men and women who were part of the movement westward.

The College dates from June 10, 1846, when a group of transplanted New Englanders with strong Congregational and social-reformer backgrounds organized as the Trustees of Iowa College. A few months later, Iowa joined the Union.

The first 25 years of Grinnell's history saw a change in name and location. Iowa College moved farther west from Davenport, Iowa, to the town of Grinnell, named for an abolitionist minister, Josiah Bushnell Grinnell. In 1909, the trustees renamed the College after the town, changing it to Grinnell College. It would be another 80 years, however, before the name of the corporation, "The Trustees of Iowa College," was legally changed to match.

In its early years, the College experienced setbacks. Although two students received bachelor of arts degrees in 1854 (among the first to be granted by a college west of the Mississippi River), within 10 years the Civil War had claimed most of Grinnell's students and professors. In the decade following the war, growth resumed: women were officially admitted as candidates for degrees, and the curriculum was enlarged to include then-new areas of academic studies, such as natural sciences with laboratory work.

In 1882, Grinnell College weathered another storm when a cyclone destroyed both College buildings. Rebuilding began immediately, and the determination to expand wasn't limited to architecture: the curriculum was again extended to include departments in political science (the first in the United States) and modern languages. Grinnell became known as the center of the Social Gospel reform movement. On a lighter note, Grinnell played some of the first intercollegiate football and baseball games west of the Mississippi, and the home teams won.

As the 20th century began, Grinnell established a Phi Beta Kappa chapter, introduced the major system of study, began Grinnell-in-China (an educational mission that lasted until the Japanese invasion and resumed in 1987), and built a women's residence hall system that became a national model. The social consciousness fostered at Grinnell during these years became evident during Franklin D. Roosevelt's presidency, when Grinnell graduates Harry Hopkins '12, Chester Davis '11, Paul Appleby '13, Hallie Ferguson Flanagan '11, and Florence Stewart Kerr '12 became influential New Deal administrators. If the future of a college can be found in its past, then concern with social issues, educational innovation, and individual expression will continue to shape Grinnell.