Milwaukees Jesuit University

Inspired by the ambitions of Milwaukee's first bishop, John Martin Henni, Marquette College opened in September 1881 on a hilltop overlooking the city's expanding downtown. Named for the great explorer and missionary of the American Midwest, Pere Jacques Marquette, the institution's educational foundation drew upon the well-developed, clearly-elucidated traditions of the Society of Jesus. Marquette's reputation as Milwaukee's university grew steadily during the 1920s, accompanied by the school's first building boom. Dependent from its earliest days upon tuition income, the school struggled through the hardships of the Great Depression and enrollment disruptions of World War II. Thomas Jablonsky paints a vivid picture of Marquette's first hundred years in which Marquette blossomed from a small liberal arts college into the largest Catholic university in the country.