Sesquicentennial Stories: The Promise of UK #141

What's In A Name?

The University of Kentucky was chartered in February of 1865 by the Kentucky Legislature, as the Agricultural and Mechanical College of Kentucky, a department established, pursuant to the terms of the Morrill Land-Grant Act of 1862, for the purpose of college-level training in Agriculture and Engineering, within Kentucky University, a private, sectarian institution organized at the same time.

Anatomy and physiology classroom, 1898

1878-1908: Agricultural and Mechanical College of Kentucky 
(Separated from Kentucky University and also known as State College)

Panorama view of the State University, 1911

1916-Present: University of Kentucky

Fans at at UK football game, 1972.

Ensuing denominational and theological controversies, as well as financial difficulties, prompted the Legislature to formally separate the College from the University in 1878, and the former, in 1880, began a century-and-a-quarter of development as an independent institution of higher education on the site of a municipal park and fairgrounds donated by the city of Lexington. In 1908 the A&M College attained University status, and in 1916 it assumed its present name.

1865-1878: Agricultural and Mechanical College of Kentucky

(A college within Kentucky University)

John Augustus Williams, b. 1824-d.1903, First Presiding Officer of the Agricultural and Mechanical College

1908-1916: State University, Lexington, Ky.