About Bradley
Founded by Lydia Moss Bradley in 1897, Bradley University is a private, independent university offering undergraduate, graduate, and continuing education programs in the liberal and fine arts, the sciences, business administration, communications, education, engineering, technology and the health sciences. A residential campus of 5,700 students, Bradley is known for its excellent teaching and commitment to student success. Bradley University links academic excellence, experiential learning and leadership development with an entrepreneurial spirit for a world-class education.
Mission, Vision & Core Values
Vision
Bradley University will be an institution of national distinction known for outstanding programs and for the educational experience it provides students.
Mission
Inspired by founder Lydia Moss Bradley’s commitment to useful learning and ethics, Bradley University educates leaders, innovators, and contributors to the well-being of all humanity.
Core Values: The Heart of the Bradley Experience
- Excellence: Bradley is a dynamic educational community that values excellence in teaching, research, creative production, applied scholarship, and service that transcends the classroom with immediate benefit to students and the campus community and with enduring benefits for students and the world.
- Leadership: The Bradley community is dedicated to the success of our students and their development into tomorrow’s leaders who will recognize the importance of teamwork toward successful outcomes.
- Innovation: Bradley University actively seeks out the development and implementation of new research directions, programs, and partnerships to enhance the educational experience of our students thereby deepening their understanding of the world and inspiring them to benefit humankind.
- Globalization: Bradley University is committed to providing knowledge and skills for life work that will promote the common good of humankind and lead to informed and principled participation in the global marketplace.
- Collaborative Learning: Bradley University is dedicated to sharing knowledge across traditional boundaries. Faculty and staff build upon a strong foundation of the world’s knowledge. Our University offers exciting interdisciplinary and collaborative learning opportunities to insure that our students receive a breadth and depth of classroom and experiential knowledge and practice. We are committed to the success of our students and to collaborative scholarship between faculty and students.
- Community: Bradley University has a cohesive community that effectively brings together faculty, staff, students, and alumni as valued members of the Bradley family. There is a collective responsibility for the success of the University and all its constituents. Success is facilitated through the University’s respectful and caring environment.
- Diversity: Bradley University represents a diverse learning community that acknowledges the importance of respect and understanding of all individuals.
- Experiential Learning: As delineated in the university’s mission statement, Bradley University maintains a century’s old commitment to useful learning and ethics; this is manifested in a variety of experiential learning opportunities for students, including internships and co-op experiences, service-learning initiatives, and many additional curricular and co-curricular learning opportunities.
- Entrepreneurship: Bradley University’s distinctive combination of strong academic programs and emphasis on collaborative and interdisciplinary study yields positive experiences for students and faculty to succeed in entrepreneurial initiatives and opportunities.
- Service: Along with leadership, service is one of the hallmarks of the Bradley University experience. The University is committed to serving individuals, families, and the surrounding community through curricular, co-curricular and extracurricular activities and opportunities.
History
On April 10, 1897, ground was broken for Bradley Hall. What had been prairie-land cornfield was transformed into a seat of learning because of the remarkable courage, strength, and determination of one woman, Mrs. Lydia Moss Bradley.
Lydia Moss Bradley had seen all of her hopes, ambitions, and dreams for her six children end in their untimely deaths. She and her husband, Tobias Bradley, had devoted much time, thought, and discussion to how their wealth might be used as a fitting memorial to their deceased offspring and considered establishing an orphanage.
Unfortunately Tobias died in May of 1867, before their dream could be realized. Alone, Mrs. Bradley devoted herself unreservedly to the achievement of their goal. After some study and travel to various institutions, Mrs. Bradley decided that, instead of an orphanage, she wanted to found a school where young people could learn how to do practical things to prepare them for living in the modern world. In 1892 she purchased a controlling interest in Parsons Horological School in LaPorte, Indiana, the first school for watchmakers in America, and moved it to Peoria. She specified in her will that the school should be expanded after her death to include a classical education as well as industrial arts and home economics: “. . . it being the first object of this Institution to furnish its students with the means of living an independent, industrious and useful life by the aid of a practical knowledge of the useful arts and sciences.”
In October 1896 Mrs. Bradley was convinced by Dr. William Rainey Harper, president of the University of Chicago, to move ahead with her plans and establish the school during her lifetime. Bradley Polytechnic Institute was chartered on November 13, 1896. Mrs. Bradley initially provided seventeen and a half acres of land; funds for two campus buildings, including laboratory equipment and library books; and annual operating expenses.
Contracts for Bradley Hall and Horology Hall (later renamed Westlake) were awarded and work moved ahead quickly. Fourteen faculty and 150 students began classes in Bradley Hall on October 4, 1897–with 500 workers still hammering away. (The Horological Department added another eight faculty and 70 students.) Bradley Polytechnic Institute was formally dedicated on October 8, 1897. Its first graduate, in June 1898, was Corinne Unland.
By 1899 there were 350 pupils in the School of Arts and Science at Bradley, about equally divided between men and women. Instruction was offered in biology, chemistry, food work , sewing, English, German, French, Latin, Greek, history, manual arts, drawing, mathematics, and physics. Pleased with its progress, Mrs. Bradley transferred to the school the rest of her estate, including nearly 1,000 different pieces of property, reserving its use and profits during her lifetime. At Founder’s Day in 1906 she announced an additional gift to build Hewitt Gymnasium, now Hartmann Center for the Performing Arts. Mrs. Bradley died on January 16, 1908, at the age of 91.
The Institute continued to grow and develop to meet the educational needs of the region. Bradley became a four- year college offering bachelor’s degrees in 1920 and a full university offering graduate programs in 1946, when it was renamed Bradley University.
