West Virginia University: 1867-2003
West Virginia University, founded in 1867, has a long and rich history as a land-grant university.
In 1862, President Abraham Lincoln signed the Morrill Act, offering land grants of 30,000 acres of federally owned land to each state that agreed to establish a college to teach agriculture and the “mechanic arts” (engineering).
The State of West Virginia was formed the following year and, shortly thereafter, the state’s legislature accepted the terms for the Morrill Act to raise the money to start the new land-grant college they called the Agricultural College of West Virginia.
In 1868, the school’s name was changed to West Virginia University.
- The Early Days: 1867-1899
- The Turn of the Twentieth Century: 1900-1910
- The 1910s at WVU
- Life at WVU During the "Roaring Twenties"
- WVU During the Great Depression
- WVU During World War II and Post-War Growth
- WVU in the 1950s
- The 1960s at WVU
- WVU in the 1970s
- 1980s at WVU
- Moving Toward a New Millennium: 1990s-2003
Unless otherwise noted, text for the pages listed above is taken from Dream Big, Dream Here: Welcome to West Virginia University (Littleton, MA: Tapestry, 2007), chap. 8. Photos provided by WVU Photographic Services.