Charles Wesley Emerson founded the Boston Conservatory of Elocution, Oratory, and Dramatic Art in 1880, a year after Boston University closed its School of Oratory.[1] Classes were held at Pemberton Square in Boston, where ten students enrolled in the conservatory's first class. The following year, the institution changed its name to the Monroe Conservatory of Oratory, in honor of Charles Emerson's teacher at Boston University's School of Oratory, Professor Lewis B. Monroe. In 1890, the name changed again to Emerson College of Oratory[9] and was later shortened to Emerson College in 1939.