From 1866 to 1935, the Maryland State Normal School (MSNS) focused on training students to become   teachers, offering “drawing” as a class in the pursuit of a teaching certificate. Advancing to the mid 20th century, with a name change to the State Teachers College at Towson (STCT), the art program expanded its offerings to include courses in fine art, industrial art, and applied art.  

In 1963, STCT became Towson State College (TSC), diversifying its offerings beyond teaching education to the arts and sciences as a part of its growing liberal arts education. The Art Department offered courses such as puppetry, printmaking, art history, ceramics and sculpture, metalworking, commercial design, and exhibition techniques. TSC offered several hands-on experiences for their students, including field trips, museums trips, and displaying student work in exhibitions. When TSC transformed into a university, course offerings expanded in photography, a larger scope for art history, the image of women in art, jewelry and fabric/weaving classes, printmaking, lithographic process, and art therapy.  

With an ever-evolving campus demographic and emerging technologies, Towson University (TU) has continued to expand its program offerings with courses like graphic design and different perspectives in art history.  

This wiki entry was created in collaboration with Maya Reynolds, a summer 2023 intern in Towson University’s Special Collections and University Archives department, and student at Notre Dame Preparatory high school in Towson, Maryland. If you have feedback on the content, please contact us through email (scua@towson.edu).