Officials will celebrate Northwestern’s birthday next week with a commemorative marker on the Chicago campus that details in words and pictures the school’s founding 150 years ago.

The marker, which displays pictures of the founders and early NU structures, will be located at the corner of LaSalle and State streets as one of several “cultural pylons” along historic walking routes in downtown Chicago.

“They’re really cool-looking signs,” said Monica Metzler, the director of NU’s sesquicentennial celebration. “What we’ve done is created one for NU that tells the story of NU’s founding and continued growth in Chicago.”

The pictures detail how, on May 31, 1850, the nine founders of NU met in an office above a hardware store to discuss establishing a university that would serve the country’s Northwest.

The 3-foot-wide marker stands 8-foot-6 and is made of black wrought iron. The structure, which displays pictures and text on both sides, includes pictures of NU’s first building. The text details how the founders initially planned to locate NU’s main campus in Chicago but later decided to establish a new community, Evanston, north of the city.

University President Henry Bienen and Patrick Ryan, chairman of NU’s Board of Trustees, will join Chicago government officials for the unveiling, Metzler said.

Next week’s event is the unofficial start of NU’s sesquicentennial celebration, which will get its grand kick-off in October.

“We wanted to denote the moment, but with Reading Week and running right up against summer, (next week) is not a good time to do the kick-off,” Metzler said.