James W. Garner Memorial Loan Fund Records, 1939-41 | University of Illinois Archives

Political Science was first listed as a subject in the catalogue of 1893-94.¹ In 1895, the Board of Trustees established a department "of political science and constitutional history and law".² The studies offered were listed as the Political Science Group under the College of Literature and Arts. The group included history, economics, and public law and administration.³ In 1901, the Board of Trustees approved the studies of political science and industrial economics as a separate department in the College of Literature and Arts.⁴ The 1904-05 Announcements listed these studies under the department of Science and Government⁵ and the 1905-06 Register listed them under the Political Science Department.⁶

In 1935 the Division of Social Sciences was established with Political Science as one of the departments included in the division.⁷

The organization of the department was changed in 1941 from a department organized with a head to a department with a chairman.⁸ In 1966, the department was reorganized again to return to having a head instead of a chairman.⁹

1. Catalogs and Registers, 1893-94, p. 140.

2. Board of Trustees Transactions, 18th Report, June 12, 1895, pp. 95, 102.

3. Catalogs and Registers, 1895-96, p. 50.

4. Board of Trustees Transactions, 21st Report, Dec. 10, 1901, p. 208, 211.

5. Catalogs and Registers, 1904-05, p. 88.

6. Ibid., 1905-06, p. 91.

7. Board of Trustees Transactions, 38th Report, April 20, 1935, p. 161.

8. Ibid., 41st Report, April 17, 1941, p. 243.

9. Ibid., 53rd Report, April 20, 1966, p. 1120. Record Group 15