Meadville Lombard Theological School
seminary in Chicago, Illinois, United States
The Meadville Lombard Theological School is a Unitarian Universalist seminary in Chicago, Illinois.
History
Meadville Lombard is a result of a merger in the 1930s between two institutions, a Unitarian seminary and a Universalist seminary.
Meadville Theological School was founded in 1844 in Meadville, Pennsylvania. Most of the original funding came from Harm Jan Huidekoper, a recent convert to Christian Unitarianism and a wealthy businessman, and from the Independent Congregational Church.
Meadville Theological School moved to Chicago and became affiliated with the University of Chicago in 1926. It began construction on its permanent building in 1929, located across the street from First Unitarian Church of Chicago and designed by the same architect.
Lombard College was a Universalist institution in Galesburg, Illinois, founded in 1853. From the 1880s to 1913 it was the seat of the Ryder School of Divinity. When the college closed in 1930, the Lombard charter was transferred to Meadville Theological School in Chicago. bringing with it Lombard's privilege of a tax exemption, "one of only three in Illinois granting full tax-exempt status in perpetuity for all college-owned property." The combined institution became Meadville Lombard Theological School.
“Meadville Lombard Theological School” enters the record as seminary in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Meadville, Lombard and Theological can confirm, complicate or overturn.
Why this record matters
“Meadville Lombard Theological School” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Meadville, Lombard and Theological provides the most credible route into that argument.
The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jun 17, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q13360891. VIAF identifies the subject as 134847572. The Library of Congress control number is n82031601. Authority coordinates are 41.874, -87.625. 3 of 5 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1844, 1926, 1929 and 1853.
A concise general-reference account can conceal disagreements about scope, terminology or the weight assigned to individual sources. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.
- Subject orientation
- Search vocabulary
- Locating named sources
The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Meadville Lombard Theological School”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Meadville Lombard Theological School primary sources, Meadville Lombard Theological School archive and Meadville research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Meadville Lombard Theological School”?
- Which cited source is closest to the event, object or claim?
- Which institution is responsible for the underlying evidence?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Meadville Lombard Theological School” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.