The university will shift to remote operations and will be physically closed on Tuesday, Jan. 21, 2025, except for essential personnel. For more information, please visit our emergency information page.

Timeline

A canopy of oak trees and Tulane banners along McAlister

Highlights of Tulane's History

  • 1834: The Medical College of Louisiana is founded in New Orleans by seven young doctors.

  • 1847: The state legislature establishes the University of Louisiana.

  • 1847: The Medical College of Louisiana becomes the Medical Department of the University of Louisiana.   

  • 1847: The University of Louisiana adds a law department, the 12th such department in the United States.   

  • 1851: An academic department for men opens. Its first students are enrolled — 12 freshmen and two sophomores.   

  • 1861: The university closes its doors because of the Civil War. Classes resume in 1865.  

  • 1882: Paul Tulane donates extensive real estate in New Orleans for the support of education. A Board of Administrators of the Tulane Educational Fund is appointed and holds its first meeting. The board decides to support and incorporate with the University of Louisiana rather than create a separate institution.  

  • 1884: The Louisiana Legislature passes a bill transferring the University of Louisiana at New Orleans to the control of the Administrators of the Tulane Educational Fund, thus creating the Tulane University of Louisiana, a private, nonsectarian university.  

  • 1885: The university establishes a graduate division, later to become the Graduate School.   

  • 1886: Newcomb College is established within Tulane University. Josephine Louise Newcomb gave the gifts to found the college in memory of her daughter, Harriott Sophie Newcomb.   

  • 1894: The university organizes the College of Technology, which later will become the School of Engineering.  

  • 1894: The university moves to its uptown campus on St. Charles Avenue, five miles by streetcar from downtown New Orleans.   

  • 1894: The Newcomb Pottery is established.  

  • 1907: The College of Technology organizes an architecture department, which will evolve into the School of Architecture.   

  • 1912: The School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine is established. It later merges with the College of Medicine.   

  • 1914: The College of Commerce is established. It is the first business school in the South and the forerunner of the A. B. Freeman School of Business.   

  • 1925: The Graduate School is established.   

  • 1927: The School of Social Work is established — the first in the Deep South.   

  • 1942: University College is founded as Tulane's division of continuing education.   

  • 1950: The Department of Architecture separates from the School of Engineering and becomes the School of Architecture.  

  • 1967: The School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine is established.   

  • 1976: The Tulane Medical Center, a 300-bed teaching hospital and ambulatory clinic, opens.   

  • 1993: The name of the College of Arts and Sciences changes to Paul M. Tulane College and is referred to as Tulane College.   

  • 2005: The university cancels the fall semester because of Hurricane Katrina. Tulane University announces a bold renewal plan in December.        

    • Strategic initiatives: Newcomb and Tulane colleges are combined to form Newcomb-Tulane College for all undergraduates.
    • The H. Sophie Newcomb Memorial College Institute is established.       
    • University College is renamed the School of Professional Advancement.
    • The Faculty of the Liberal Arts & Sciences and the School of Engineering are reorganized into two schools: the School of Liberal Arts and the School of Science & Engineering.
    • A public service graduation requirement for all students is initiated.
    • The Partnership for the Transformation of Urban Communities is established.
       

  • 2006: Classes resume in the spring with 93 percent of all students returning to Tulane University after Hurricane Katrina.   

  • 2007: The university's incoming freshman class of 1,400 students is almost 60 percent larger than in 2006, marking the largest one-year increase in first-year students in the history of the university.   

  • 2010: "Tulane Empowers" begins, a campaign to build resources that will help people build a better world.

  • 2014: Mike Fitts is named the 15th President of Tulane University.

  • 2017: The School of Continuing Studies relaunches as the School of Professional Advancement (SoPA) with a renewed focus on working adults, career advancement, and applied and innovative programs that are relevant to the workplace.

  • 2017: "Only the Audacious: The campaign for an ever bolder Tulane" begins. This is the university's most ambitious fundraising campaign to date — with a goal of raising $1.3 billion.