George Williams College (Chicago) George Williams College (Chicago) George Williams College was a college located in the northwestern corner of Hyde Park, Chicago. The college was an expansion of a summer camp founded by the Young Men's Christian Association (YMCA) on the shores of Geneva Lake, Wisconsin in 1886. The college remained in Hyde Park from its founding in 1890 until 1965, when it moved to Downers Grove, Illinois. Subsequently, the Hyde Park campus was demolished in 1989. George Williams College can trace its origin to a summer camp founded on the shores of Geneva Lake, Wisconsin by YMCA leaders I. E. Brown, William
John Francon Williams publisher and editor George Newnes (Sir George Newnes, 1st Baronet) – now regarded as the founding father of popular journalism – during the years when Newnes was building his publishing empire. It was during this period that Williams also founded his own publication. In 1887, Williams founded and edited the monthly magazine, "Stories Illustrated". In 1888, Philips' published several geographical atlases they named 'Handy-Volumes' compiled and written by Williams that were distributed widely worldwide; ‘All these compact and clearly-printed miniature works, suitable for pocket or desk, and rightly named ‘Handy-Volumes’ are supplied with indexes, and geographical, statistical and historical notes,