Titled professorships have existed within higher education since the creation of the first endowed professorship at Harvard College in 1721. Yet, only in the last one hundred years have titled professorships become a regular part of higher education nomenclature on a national scale. Neither the total number of titled professorships nor the total amount of money endowing titled professorships is tracked by any known higher education or philanthropical institution despite the proliferation of titled professorships within American higher education. Historical and philanthropic literature has not explored the impact of titled professorships on an institution or on those appointed to such titles in any comprehensive way outside of a limited number of studies exploring titled professorships within specific racial or gender identity groups or within academic disciplines like nursing, accounting, or various medical disciplines. This study offers a glimpse into the historical development and use of titled professorships within one American higher education institution, Indiana University. This historical study explores the origination and utilization of titled professorships at Indiana University (IU), a midwestern public university founded in 1820, from the establishment of its first titled professorships in 1915, through growth in the number of titled professorships and the faculty appointed to those professorships, to the establishment of criteria for consideration, nomination, and evaluation of nominees in the early 1970s. This study sets the stage by examining the evolution of the IU faculty from its earliest days, focusing on the growth of the institution in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, to the acquisition of its first endowed professorship in 1915. It explores the growth of the faculty along with the challenges university leadership faced in their efforts to increase the number and prestige of the institution's faculty. The study then presents the origination and appointment of titled professorships as one tool the university used to expand and retain its faculty. The study examines two distinct forms of titled professorships at IU--named, also known as endowed, professorships and university-established titled professorships--along with how the university cultivated and distributed these unique titles. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://bibliotheek.ehb.be:2222/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]