High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! The University of Chicago (U of C, UC, UChicago, or simply Chicago) is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois, USA. It was founded by the American Baptist Education Society with a donation from oil magnate and philanthropist John D. Rockefeller and incorporated in 1890. William Rainey Harper became the university`s first president, in 1891, and the first classes were held in 1892. It has a reputation of devotion to academic scholarship and intellectualism and is affiliated with scores of Rhodes Scholars and 87 Nobel Prize laureates, the largest number affiliated with any American university.