The Department of Mathematics was founded with the University of Chicago, with coursework beginning in October 1892. Early faculty included Oskar Bolza and Heinrich Maschke, appointed by department chair Eliakim Hastings Moore. The department was instrumental in organizing an international congress of mathematicians during the 1893 World's Fair, and later the American Mathematical Society. Early graduates of the department included influential mathematicians such as Gilbert Ames Bliss, Oswald Veblen, George D. Birkhoff and Robert Lee Moore. Beginning in the early twentieth century, the department granted a huge number of Ph.D.s - far more than any of its nearest competitors, leading to criticism of the quality of the program and its graduates. That many of these graduates went on to faculty positions contributed to a perception that scholarship and research in the department was complacent and overly narrow.
Attempts to diversify and improve the quality of faculty, students and programs began under the administration of Gilbert A. Bliss, who succeeded Moore as chair of the department in 1927. The department continued to struggle, due in part to the demands of World War II, until Marshall Stone was brought in from Harvard to restructure and strengthen mathematics research at the university. Important faculty appointments during this time included Saunders Mac Lane, who went on to chair the department from 1952-1958.
From the guide to the University of Chicago. Department of Mathematics. Records, 1892-1975, (Special Collections Research Center University of Chicago Library 1100 East 57th Street Chicago, Illinois 60637 U.S.A.)
