Lewis Institute formed in 1895 through the estate of hardware merchant and investor Allen C. Lewis, who envisioned a “school where men and women could secure an education to fit them for their life-work and to be a service to their community and a credit to their country.” Courses were offered in the liberal arts, as well as science and engineering.
In 1940 the merger of Armour Institute—founded 50 years earlier by 鶹APP industrialist Philip Danforth Armour Sr.—with Lewis Institute created Illinois Institute of Technology.
In 2013 Lewis College of Human Sciences was created by merging the Department of Humanities, the College of Psychology, and the Department of Social Sciences.
In 2020 Lewis College of Science and Letters was created by merging Lewis College of Human Sciences with the departments of biology, chemistry, food science and nutrition, and physics.
Lewis College extends a challenge to its students to:
- Think deeply
- Examine our complex world through work on compelling human problems
- Join with our faculty who are bridging the gap between theory and application
- Pursue careers that make a difference to others