UIHistories Project: A History of the University of Illinois by Kalev Leetaru
N A V I G A T I O N D I G I T A L L I B R A R Y
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Repository: UIHistories Project: Book - History of the University (Nevins) [PAGE 130]

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UNIVERSITY ADVERTISING

115

though Peabody requested in the end that $2,000 be spent for books alone. Michigan, Wisconsin, and other neighbors had all surpassed Illinois.! As for the existing museum, the collections were greatly enriched by the accessions from the State Laboratory of Natural History, which brought with it 3,500 specimens of fungi, 11,700 fishes, 1,400 reptiles, and 42,000 mounted insects, with other material. The industrial museum contained Patent Office models, gifts from manufacturers, and some products of the shops. The most important facts in the history of the University in this decade concern its relations with the State; for in this period the tide first began to turn, and popular indifference slowly to change to grudging recognition of Illinois as actually the State University. The initial advances in State esteem were made partly as a result of the growing momentum of the institution, but more largely by virtue of the strenuous efforts of the alumni, assisted by the faculty. Though Dr. Peabody always spoke of 1885 as the pivotal year, most people must have felt for several years afterwards that nothing had really yet been accomplished. Legislative criticism was as keen as ever, and the attitude of the newspapers as provoking. Thus in 1883 the Illini complained of the Chicago Tribune's hatred of the*University, its gross ignorance and falsifying propensities; and in 1887, when a debate was going on between the Tribune and Inter Ocean as to the value of normal and university education, the Tribune still asserted that Illinois was only " a useful agricultural academy." But the advances were real if small, and were registered in many different ways. Consistent efforts were made throughout Peabody *s administration to advertise the University^ In his first

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