Repository: UIHistories Project: Course Catalog - 1888-1889 [PAGE 22]

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University of Illinois.

HISTOBT.

The University of Illinois had its origin in a movement for the higher education of the industrial classes, begun in 1851, and resulting in the congressional grant of lands for this purpose, made to the several States in 1862, and amounting in this State to 480,000 acres. The University was chartered in February, 1867, and opened to students in March, 1868. In addition to the endowment from the land grant, over $400,000 were donated by Champaign county in bonds, buildings, and farms. The State also has made large appropriations for fitting up and stocking the farms, for library and apparatus,,and for buildings, including the large Main building erected in 1872 and 1873, the Mechanical Building and Drill Hall, and the Chemical Laboratory. Successive Colleges and schools have been added as required, until four Colleges, including eleven distinct Schools, have been organized. The whole number matriculated as students since the opening is 2,342. The number graduated from the several Colleges, including the class of 1888, is 574. In 1871 the University was opened for lady students, on the same terms as to gentlemen. In 1874 a Fine Art Gallery was established. The University has a beautiful and healthful situation on the high grounds between the cities of Champaign and Urbana, and within the corporate limits of the latter. It is one hundred and twenty-eight miles south from Chicago, at the junction of the Illinois Central, the Ohio, Indiana and Western, and the Wabash railways. The country is a region of beautiful rolling prairies, with large belts of timber