The Missouri Honor Medal for Distinguished Service in Journalism
1808: Missouri's First Newspaper Published
1819: Frontier Newspaper Established
1821: Missouri Achieved Statehood
1839: University of Missouri Established
1850-1860s: Civil War Increased News Production
1864: Walter Williams Born
1867: Missouri Press Association Established
1869: University Instruction in Journalism Offered
1869: Missouri Publishers Supported Journalism Education
1879: First MU Course in Journalism Offered
1889: Williams Named MPA President
1896: Curators Attempted Journalism Curriculum
1898: MPA Championed Newspaper Preservation
1902: Walter Williams Promoted St. Louis World's Fair
1906: School of Journalism Became Top Priority
Missouri School of Journalism
  2008 Timeline: The First 100 Years
 
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Before 1908


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Out of Missouri's storied newspaper history...
evolved two forces that would shape the future of journalism: Walter Williams (1864-1935)
and the Missouri Press Association (est. 1867). Both played integral roles in the founding
of the world's first school of journalism in the most unlikely of places – the middle of Missouri. Through obstacles and doubt, they began the long journey of elevating journalism from a printer's trade to a profession and changed the world by doing it.

 
1880s
Walter Williams climbed to journalism fame, first as a young editor in Boonville, Mo., and then as editor of the Columbia (Mo.) Herald. He transformed the Herald into "America's model weekly" and in 1889 became the youngest president of the Missouri Press Association at age 25.


  Late 1880s
Several colleges began teaching journalism courses, but Missouri's idea for a journalism school involved hands-on training in addition to academic work.

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Revised: 18 June 2008. Copyright © 2008 The Curators of the University of Missouri  |  Contact the J-School










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