Academic Facilities

At Knox, you have direct, unfettered access to academic resources -- and you're empowered to use these resources in creative ways that support your self-guided educational plan.

Facilities you'll find only at Knox include the Green Oaks Biological Field Station, home to the second-oldest restored tallgrass prairie in North America, where you can conduct ecological research, and the Galesburg Colony Underground Railroad Freedom Station, where you can examine primary sources from the anti-slavery movement.

Among the major academic facilities on campus:

Sharvy G. Umbeck Science-Mathematics Center
You can do year-round research in all the sciences here, where you'll find many of your resources for experimental research. Thanks in part to major grants from the National Science Foundation, the National Institute of Health, and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. Knox boasts an impressive equipment list that includes:

• Scanning electron microscope, nuclear magnetic resonance and electronic spin resonance spectrometers
• High performance liquid chromatograph
• Peptide synthesizer, a spectroscope
• X-ray diffraction instrumentation
• Celestron telescopes
• GIS software that allows for superior spatial data analysis

Ford Center for the Fine Arts
You can pursue your creative aspirations in our facility for art, art history, theatre, dance, and music. To enhance your performances and studies, it houses:

• 600-seat Harbach Theatre, with a revolving stage that changes from proscenium to thrust
• Acoustically superb, 400-seat Kresge Recital Hall
• 100-seat Studio Theatre
• Instrumental and choral practice and rehearsal rooms
• Music library
• Spacious studios for ceramics, printmaking, sculpture, drawing, and painting

Seymour Library
The heart of the Knox campus, where you'll not only find more than a quarter million books and almost 700 print periodicals, but also robust special collections that let you really sink your teeth into major research projects, including:

• Midwest historical documents
• 18th- and 19th-century maps and photographs
• Manuscripts and first editions from Hemingway and his "Lost Generation" contemporaries
• Prints by Rembrandt, Dürer, and other leading printmakers
• Online access to journals, bibliographies and full text databases, and services such as Lexis-Nexis