[2] The college was named after Scottish missionary Stephen Hislop (1817–1863), who was a noted evangelist, educationist and geologist.

He worked for 18 years in the Vidarbha Region alongside Robert Hunter, editor of the Encyclopædic Dictionary.

[3] Hislop College was established in 1883 in the Mahal area of Nagpur (But today it is in Civil Lines).

[citation needed] The American pastor, James M. Lawson, Jr., worked as a missionary there in the campus ministry office from 1953 to 1956, studying Gandhian nonviolence and satyagraha, which influenced his movement-building skills.

[4] The faculty and Students of Hislop College has carried out 60 Research project in a field of Botany, Sociology, Bio Chemistry, Commerce, Physics, Computer Science, Literature (English, Hindi and Marathi) which has been sanctioned by the University and has been working on 15 research projects on Commerce, Botany, History and Sociology.