Justin Morrill Letters to UVM President Matthew Buckham

Justin Morrill (1810-1898) served as a US Representative (1855-1867) and Senator (1867-1898) from Vermont, following a successful business career. His signature legislative accomplishments were the Land Grant Acts of 1862 and 1890, which used the proceeds from the sale of federal lands expropriated from tribal nations, to create land-grant colleges. The purpose of these land-grant colleges was to teach agriculture, military instruction, and mechanical arts such as engineering in addition to the traditional science and classical education that was generally taught in colleges at that time. The second Land Grant Act, passed in 1890, funded colleges in the former Confederate states and required each state to offer race blind admissions or set up a separate land-grant college for persons of color, which led to the creation of several of the historically Black colleges and universities. An additional act passed by Congress in 1887 funded agricultural experiment stations under the direction of the land grant colleges. In 1865, the University of Vermont and State Agricultural College was incorporated, after a great deal of debate about whether a land-grant college in Vermont should be a separate institution, or attached to the University of Vermont, Norwich University, Middlebury College or even possibly a merger of those three institutions. Despite the 1865 incorporation, these debates would continue in Vermont for many years to come. With the establishment of the University of Vermont and State Agricultural College, Morrill became a trustee of the University, a position he continued to hold until his death in 1898. Matthew Buckham (1832-1910) became President of the University in 1871 and continued in this role until his death in 1910. He had previously graduated from the University in 1851 and served as a faculty member from 1856-1871. His time as president saw the admission of women to the University, the addition of several notable buildings to campus such as Williams Hall and the Billings Library, and the development of the State Agricultural College which had admitted no students to the agricultural course in the six years before he became President. Morrill and Buckham were frequent correspondents and eighty-two of Morrill’s letters to Buckham, along with three to George Benedict and one to Albert Cummins, are preserved in Buckham’s papers at the University of Vermont and are digitized and transcribed in this collection. The letters included here discuss a wide variety of topics, mostly related to the agricultural college and include: federal support for the University, possible donors, military instruction, Morrill’s views on the development of agricultural colleges around the country, competition with Middlebury and Norwich, Vermont legislation such as the 1890 “divorce bill” which would have separated the State Agricultural College from the University, the experimental farm, the academic progress of Morrill’s son James at the University, and the construction of Billings Library along with the potential acquisition of the library of George Perkins Marsh.

List

Gallery

Information

Showing 1 - 7 of 7 Records

Relevance Title (A-Z) Title (Z-A) Year (0-9) Year (9-0)
10 25 50 100
Active filters
Created Date Year Sort: 1888   Remove all  

7 text
Miniature of Justin Smith Morrill to Matthew H. Buckham, October 29, 1888
Justin Smith Morrill to Matthew H. Buckham, October 29, 1888
Image nop
    • Creator: Morrill, Justin S. (Justin Smith), 1810-1898.
    • Date Created: 1888-10-29
    • Description: Morrill writes about a proposed Military Hall and Gymnasium to be named after him at the University of Vermont and about some enclosed remarks about Morrill and Agricultural Colleges by President Andrew Dickson White of Cornell University.
    • Parent Collections: Justin Morrill Letters to UVM President Buckham
    Miniature of Justin Smith Morrill to Matthew H. Buckham, December 23, 1888
    Justin Smith Morrill to Matthew H. Buckham, December 23, 1888
    Image nop
      • Creator: Morrill, Justin S. (Justin Smith), 1810-1898.
      • Date Created: 1888-12-23
      • Description: Morrill writes about an agricultural school at the University and state support for it.
      • Parent Collections: Justin Morrill Letters to UVM President Buckham
      Miniature of Justin Smith Morrill to Matthew H. Buckham, October 25, 1888
      Justin Smith Morrill to Matthew H. Buckham, October 25, 1888
      Image nop
        • Creator: Morrill, Justin S. (Justin Smith), 1810-1898.
        • Date Created: 1888-10-25
        • Description: Morrill writes about his recent remarks to the Vermont legislature, which were aimed at garnering support for the Agricultural College at the University of Vermont.
        • Parent Collections: Justin Morrill Letters to UVM President Buckham
        Miniature of Justin Smith Morrill to Matthew H. Buckham, October 22, 1888
        Justin Smith Morrill to Matthew H. Buckham, October 22, 1888
        Image nop
          • Creator: Morrill, Justin S. (Justin Smith), 1810-1898.
          • Date Created: 1888-10-22
          • Description: Morrill writes with a donation to the Century College fund and about the Watchman's recent efforts to discourage the state of Vermont from providing aid to the University and State Agricultural College.
          • Parent Collections: Justin Morrill Letters to UVM President Buckham
          Miniature of Justin Smith Morrill to Matthew H. Buckham, February 26, 1888
          Justin Smith Morrill to Matthew H. Buckham, February 26, 1888
          Image nop
            • Creator: Morrill, Justin S. (Justin Smith), 1810-1898.
            • Date Created: 1888-02-26
            • Description: Morrill writes about Experiment Stations and the possible acquisition of 50 acres by the University and long-term costs of that acqusition.
            • Parent Collections: Justin Morrill Letters to UVM President Buckham
            Miniature of Justin Smith Morrill to Matthew H. Buckham, September 4, 1888
            Justin Smith Morrill to Matthew H. Buckham, September 4, 1888
            Image nop
              • Creator: Morrill, Justin S. (Justin Smith), 1810-1898.
              • Date Created: 1888-09-04
              • Description: Morrill writes requesting some background information on the University and Agricultural College, and also tells Buckham that he recommended him to Henry Houghton to write a history of Vermont.
              • Parent Collections: Justin Morrill Letters to UVM President Buckham
              Miniature of Justin Smith Morrill to Matthew H. Buckham, August 21, 1888
              Justin Smith Morrill to Matthew H. Buckham, August 21, 1888
              Image nop
                • Creator: Morrill, Justin S. (Justin Smith), 1810-1898.
                • Date Created: 1888-08-21
                • Description: Morrill writes about an upcoming address to the legislature in Montpelier about state support for the Agricultural College and the University of Vermont.
                • Parent Collections: Justin Morrill Letters to UVM President Buckham