In the early nineteenth-century United States, a number of architects began to see their profession as a higher calling. Even as architecture was increasingly subjected to the pressures of the market, these figures gave sermon-like public lectures that cast their work as a divinely informed task. They sought to elevate their profession beyond mere building or crass profit-seeking by portraying it as a force for moral and civic improvement.Bryan E. Norwood tells the story of how a s...

The founding of the university in 1867 created a unique community in what had been a prairie. Within a few years, this creative mix of teachers and scholars produced innovations in agriculture, engineering and the arts that challenged old ideas and stimulated dynamic new industries. Projects ranging from the Mosaic web browser to the discovery of Archaea and pioneering triumphs in women's education and wheelchair accessibility have helped shape the university's mission into a double helix ...