Repository: UIHistories Project: Board of Trustees Minutes - 1876 [PAGE 25]

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ILLINOIS INDUSTRIAL

UNIVERSITY.

HISTORY.

The Illinois Industrial University had its origin in a grand 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. The grant amounting in this State to 480,000 acres, having been accepted, the University was chartered in February, 1867, and publicly opened and and inuagurated in March, 1868. In addition to the endowment received from the land grant, over $400,000 were donated by Champaign County in bonds, buildings and farms. The State has also made large appropriations for fitting up and stocking the farms, for library and apparatus, and for buildings, including the lafrge Main Building erected in 1872 and 1873, and the Mechanical Building and Drill Hall. Successive Colleges and Schools have been added as required, till four Colleges, including fourteen distinct Schools, have been organized. The whole number matriculated as students since the opening is 1179. The number graduated from the several Colleges, including the class of 1877, is 160. I n 1871 the University was opened for lady students, on the same terms as to gentlemen, and large numbers have availed themselves of the privileges offered. In 1874 a fine Art Gallery was established, containing a large collection of casts of celebrated" statues and sculptures, and of engravings, autotypes, etc. The University has steadily advanced in standing and in public reputation, and now holds admitted rank among the first institutions of its class in this country.

LOCATION.

The University has a beautiful situation on the high grounds between the contiguous cities of Champaign and Urbana, and w r ithin the corporate limits of the latter. It is one hundred and twenty-eight miles south from Chicago, at the junction of the Illinois Central Railroad and the Indianapolis, Bloomington and Western Railway. The county is a region of beautiful rolling prairies, with large belts of timber along the streams, and is one of the richest farming districts in the State.

BUILDINGS AND GROUNDS.

The domain occupied by the University and its several departments embraces about 623 acres, including stock farm, experimental farm, orchards, gardens, nurseries, forest plantations, arboretum, botanical garden, ornamental grounds, and military parade ground.