History of Communication Science and Disorders
at the University of Missouri-Columbia

The roots of CSD at MU can be traced back to the late 1800s. A few years after the Civil War, John R. Scott, a specialist in the speaking voice, was appointed Professor of Elocution at the University, where he taught until 1910.

One of MU's first elocution classes, ca 1900.

Historical photographs courtesy MU Archives

After Scott's retirement, the area of elocution was annexed by the Department of English. The academic area of oral communication survived this annexation and over the next two decades evolved within the English Department into the area of speech, having four faculty of its own in 1935.

The Department of Elocution and later the speech section of English was housed, with most of the other disciplines of the College of Arts and Science, in Academic Hall (now Jesse Hall).

-historical photographs courtesy of MU Archives

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In 1939, the speech section of the Department of English moved into Switzler Hall, which had previously housed Agriculture, then Journalism, then Engineering. In 1940, the speech section became the Department of Speech and Dramatic Art, offering undergraduate, masters, and doctoral degrees in speech, theatre, speech pathology, and broadcasting.
"The Speech and Hearing Clinic that I had started in 1938 and now a major part of the Department, had a suite of three rooms: two were connected by a one-way mirror so that clinicians could observe a case in progress, yet remain unseen. At the other end of the long hall a large room had been cut in half by a partition, containing a glass window; one room had a microphone, the other a Presto recorder . . . We were absolutely, positively, state of the art". -Loren Reid, Speech Teacher: A Random Narrative (Annandale, Virginia, Speech Communication Association, 1990), 73.

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In 1959, the Area in Speech Pathology/Audiology moved next door to Parker Hall (formerly Parker Memorial Hospital) where there would be space for the Clinic's large, heavy sound-proof booths. The Area remained part of the Department of Speech and Dramatic Art until 1980 when, reflecting the broadening scope of the profession of speech-language pathology, it moved into the School of Medicine as part of Health Related Professions.

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Now the Department of Communication Science and Disorders and part of the School of Health Professions, the Department occupies renovated space in Lewis and Clark Halls. With a Language Preschool, a Speech and Hearing Clinic, an Acoustics Laboratory, computer hardware and software for acoustic, physiologic, and linguistic analysis of speech and hearing, the Department strives to remain "absolutely, positively, state of the art".

Lewis Hall, home of the CSD department and the School of Health Professions.

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