Samford University is the largest privately supported and fully accredited institution for higher learning in Alabama.
Founded by a group of educational, economic, and religious leaders, the school was chartered in 1841 and opened its doors on January 3, 1842, in Marion, Alabama, as Howard College. It has survived two destructive fires and the partial paralysis of the Civil War and Reconstruction. In 1887 it was relocated in Birmingham, and in 1957 the institution was moved to its present campus.
Women were first admitted to Howard College in 1895. The College officially became coeducational in 1913.
In 1920 Howard College gained membership in the Southern Association of Colleges. The establishment of the Teacher Education Division in 1914 and Division of Pharmacy in 1927 highlighted the school's continuous growth throughout the years. The historic and renowned Cumberland School of Law, established in 1847 at Lebanon, Tennessee, was acquired in 1961.
In 1965 the master's degree program was reinstituted. This development coupled with the existing diversity of degree programs, resulted in Howard College's official elevation to university status on November 9, 1965.
In the same year the university was named for Frank Park Samford, member of one of Alabama's most respected families, chairman of the Howard College Board of Trustees, and, to that time, the institution's most generous individual benefactor.
The Ida V. Moffett School of Nursing owned by the Baptist Medical Center of Birmingham, was added to the University in 1973. In 1988, the Beeson School of Divinity was established through the generosity of Ralph W. Beeson.
The University now consists of the Howard College of Arts and Sciences, School of Business, Orlean Bullard Beeson School of Education and Professional Studies, School of Performing Arts, Ida V. Moffett School of Nursing, McWhorter School of Pharmacy, Beeson School of Divinity, and Cumberland School of Law.
