Did you have a Magic Slate, too?
If you ever played with a Magic Slate as a kid, you touched a bit of Aurora University. In 1927 the stationery company that had purchased the patent for Magic Slate came to Dr. Curtis Singleterry in the Aurora College chemistry department to try to solve some problems with the new product. Dr. Singleterry developed the sticky, black wax that makes the images on the Magic Slate when you press the plastic cover sheet into it with a stylus.

But does it play the KFC theme song?
The carillon bells that ring out from Eckhart Hall were a gift from Col. Harlan Sanders, the founder of Kentucky Fried Chicken. Col. Sanders' mother was a member of the Advent Christian Church, which was associated with the founding of the Aurora College. When he paid a visit to campus in the early 1970s, he presented the school with its carillon— located on the top of Eckhart Hall. The Colonel also remembered AU in his will, providing generous funding for the Sanders Scholarships. How good is that?

Why do most AU buildings have red tile roofs?
When the original buildings of the campus were constructed in 1911-1912, funding was provided by Charles Eckhart, founder of the Auburn Motor Car Company. He retired to Southern California and was charmed by the red tile roofs common on buildings there. Shortly after his retirement, Eckhart made a substantial donation to the College with just one condition—that all new Aurora buildings should have red tile. With the exception of Phillips Library and Stephens Hall (which pick up the red theme in their wall panels), all subsequent buildings on the campus have been built with red tile roofs, which are not only attractive but are quite durable.

Everybody collects something, right?
Aurora University is home to the world's largest collection of Prophecy Charts—large, hand-painted canvases used as visual aids by camp preachers from the 1840s through the 1930s. Some are very large indeed: we have one that is 8 by 40 feet! The University has a collection of over 30 of these unique works of art, which have been featured in scholarly publications and will be included in a national touring exhibit currently being arranged by the university and funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities. The collection is housed in the Jenks Collection in Phillips Library.

First Fiddle?
Violinist Maud Powell, who grew up in Aurora was the first American violinist to win international acclaim, and probably the first female violinist in the world to achieve major fame as a soloist. When the Victor Company launched the famous Red Seal "Celebrity Artist" series in 1904, Maud Powell was the first instrumentalist to be signed up. She died in 1920, but her recordings are still issued on CDs, and the Maud Powell Foundation continues the work of encouraging women to enter careers in music.