Danforth Chapels

Article summary

The Danforth Chapel Program was funded by the Danforth Foundation, an organization created in 1927 by William H. Danforth, founder of the Ralston Purina Company, and his wife. The Danforth Foundation focused on national education philanthropy: providing scholarships to college students, supporting projects to revitalize the city of St. Louis, and funding the Danforth Chapels. The Danforth Foundation closed in 2011 with a gift of $70M to the Donald Danforth Plant Center, a research center that focuses on solving world hunger. The Danforth Chapel Program supported the establishment of 24 chapels: 15 chapels on college and university campuses and nine other chapels. The chapels and the chapel program emphasized Christian faith in chapel designs but designs and chapels did accommodate for other faiths. The foundation's first requirement was that each chapel include religious (predominantly Christian) images, such as Heinrich Hoffman's Christ in the Garden. The second requirement was that each include a plaque with an inscription: Dedicated to the worship of God with the prayer that here in the communion with the highest those who enter may acquire the spiritual power to aspire nobly, adventure daringly, serve humbly. The third requirement was that the Danforths have a say in the design of each chapel.…

Key claims

1. date of foundation: 1889 — source: Wikipedia · confidence 0.95

Discussion questions

1. Summarise the article in your own words. Which single claim would you verify first, and why?
2. The record states that the date of foundation is "1889". What evidence would count against this claim?
3. Which claim in this article is most likely to be revised as the sources update? How would you check its current status?
4. If two sources disagreed about one of these facts, what would you need in order to trust one over the other?

Bibliography

1. Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=1371697006