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Muhlenberg College is a private liberal arts college in Allentown, Pennsylvania. Founded in 1848, Muhlenberg is affiliated with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and is named for Henry Melchior Muhlenberg, the German patriarch of the Lutheran Church in America.
Muhlenberg College was initially established in 1848 as the Allentown Seminary by Reverend Samuel K. Brobst, a Reformed Lutheran minister. Reverend Christian Rudolph Kessler was the school's first teacher and administrator. Between 1848 and 1867, the entity that is today Muhlenberg College operated as the Allentown Seminary, the Allentown Collegiate and Military Institute and the Allentown Collegiate Institute. In 1867, the college moved into Trout Hall,[4] the former mansion of William Allen's son, James Allen, and was renamed after Henry Melchior Muhlenberg, the patriarch of the Lutheran Church in America. Muhlenberg's great-grandson, Reverend Frederick Augustus Muhlenberg, served as president of the college from 1867 to 1876. In 1905, the college purchased and relocated to a 51-acre (21 ha) tract located in Allentown's West End, the site of today's campus.
In 1910, seeing a need for evening study in the community, Muhlenberg College began offering courses through a "Saturday School for Teachers." The offerings for adult education outside of the traditional baccalaureate track evolved over the years through various titles including an "Extension" school, and in 2002 Muhlenberg opened The W. Clarke Wescoe School of Professional Studies. With the addition of graduate degree programs the Wescoe name has been dropped. The adult education division is now known simply as The School for Graduate and Continuing Studies.
Kathleen Haring became Muhlenberg College's first female president in 2019, succeeding John I. Williams, Jr., the College's first Black president, who served from 2015-2019. (Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)