Close to 150 years ago on July 2, 1862, an act of Congress,
known as the Morrill Act, gave to each state in the Union 30,000 acres of
public lands for each Senator and Representative in Congress "for the
endowment, support and maintenance of at least one college where the leading
object shall be, without excluding other scientific and classical studies and
including military tactics, to teach such branches of learning as are related
to agriculture and the mechanic arts in such manner as the legislatures of the
states may respectively prescribe in order to promote the liberal and practical
education of the industrial classes in the several pursuits and professions of
life." The act made instruction in those branches of learning related to
agriculture and the mechanic arts obligatory. It also made instruction in
military tactics obligatory. It made the inclusion of other scientific and
classical studies permissive, optional, with the states. The states may, out of
this Morrill fund, establish and maintain an Agricultural and Mechanical
College only, or they may make the Agricultural and Mechanical College the
nucleus of a University organization which shall include agriculture and
mechanics as one of its colleges. The University of Kentucky is the outgrowth
of the Agricultural and Mechanical College which was established under the
provisions of the Morrill Land Grant Act.
Under this allotment Kentucky received 330,000 acres.
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Original college building at Woodland Park, A&M. Classroom building at Woodlands. |
When the Morrill Act passed Congress, the country was in the
midst of the Civil War. Educational matters occupied their attention but
little. Nonetheless, A&M College became a publicly chartered department of
Kentucky University (now Transylvania University) under a cooperative plan
authorized by the legislature in 1865. The purpose of this plan was to unite
sectarian and public education under one organization. This experiment was
tried for a number of years. In the meantime, the federal funds authorized
under the Morrill Act were used to develop agriculture and mechanic arts in
Kentucky University.
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| Early view of the UK campus |
In 1878, when the people of Kentucky decided to establish a state
institution of higher learning, the College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts
was separated from Kentucky University and reestablished on land given by the
City of Lexington and Fayette County. Thirty years later the legislature
changed the name of the institution to the State University of Kentucky, and
gave it additional financial support. In 1916 the name was again changed, this
time to the present title, and additional maintenance was arranged by
legislative act.
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| The Experimental Farm at Kentucky State University, 1899 |
In the early days of Agricultural Colleges not much agriculture
was actually taught because little was known beyond farm experience. The realization of the scarcity of
scientific data gave great impetus to investigations and to the study of sciences
related to plant and animal growth.
Recognizing the need for investigation, Congress through the Hatch Act,
approved in 1887, appropriated to states $15,000 each for the purpose of
establishing experiment stations.
However, the Kentucky Experiment Station was established in December
1885 with Dr. Scovell as director, who continued in that capacity until 1912.
“America’s system of public universities is the legacy of
the Morrill Act of 1862 which established new public institutions in each state
through the grant of federal lands. The original mission of these new
institutions was to teach agriculture, military tactics, and the mechanic arts
as well as classical studies so that members of the working classes could
obtain a liberal, practical education. The Morrill Act provided a broad segment
of the population with a practical education that had direct relevance to their
daily lives,” from the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities http://www.aplu.org
To read the original Morrill Act please visit http://www.ourdocuments.gov/doc.php?flash=true&doc=33&page=transcript
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