The Origins of Federal Support for Higher Education: George W. Atherton and the Land-Grant College Movement

Roger L. Williams

Published by Penn State University Press 1991

The Origins of Federal Support for Higher Education

George W. Atherton and the Land-Grant College Movement

Roger L. Williams

https://doi.org/10.1515/9780271073019

Overview
Contents

About this book

The Origins of Federal Support for Higher Education revises the traditional interpretation of the land-grant college movement, whose institutions were brought into being by the 1862 Morrill Act to provide for "the liberal and practical education of the industrial classes." Rather than being the inevitable consequence of the unfolding dynamic of institutional and socioeconomic forces, Williams argues, it was the active intervention and initiative of a handful of educational leaders that secured the colleges' future—above all, the activities of George W. Atherton.

For nearly three decades, Atherton, who was the seventh president of the Pennsylvania State University, worked to secure consistent federal financial support for the colleges, which in their early years received little assistance from the states they were designed to benefit. He also helped to develop the institutions as comprehensive "national" universities grounded in the liberal arts and sciences—a conception that countered the prevailing view of the colleges as mainly agricultural schools.

Atherton became the prime mover in the campaign to enact the 1887 Hatch Act, which encouraged the establishment of agricultural experiment stations at land-grant colleges. The act marked the federal government's first effort to provide continuous funding to research units associated with higher education institutions. At the same time, Atherton played a key role in the formation of the first association of such institutions: The Association of American Agricultural Colleges and Experiment Stations. It was the Association that provided the critical mass needed to lobby Congress successively and to approach the many opportunities and threats the land-grant colleges faced during the 1885–1906 period.

Atherton was also deeply involved in the campaign for the Morrill Act of 1890, which provided long-sought annual appropriations to land-grant colleges for a broad range of academic programs and encouraged steady growth in state support during the 1890s.

Roger Williams traces the motives and tactics behind a series of laws that made the federal government irreversibly committed to funding higher education and scientific research and provides rich new insights into the complexities, polarities, and inherent contradictions of the history of the American land-grant movement.

Author / Editor information

Williams Roger L. :

Roger L. Williams is Assistant Vice President and Executive Director of University Relations at the Pennsylvania State University. This book is a revised version of his dissertation, which won the 1989 Distinguished Dissertation Award of the Association for the Study of Higher Education.

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	v
Illustrations and Credits Publicly Available Download PDF	vii
Preface Publicly Available Download PDF	ix
1 A New Interpretation Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
2 The Land-Grant Movement’s First Fifty Years Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	11
3 A New Advocate Emerges Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	55
4 The Hatch Act and “the Association” the Association” Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	87
5 The Second Morrill Act Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	123
6 The Association and the Emerging Federal Relationship Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	157
7 The Atherton Legacy Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	199
Appendix: “Memoranda as to George W. Atherton” Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	229
Notes Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	239
Bibliography Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	257
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	265

Language: English
Publisher: Penn State University Press
Audience: Professional and scholarly;
Pages
- Main content: 284
Keywords: Gift for Penn State alumni; Origins of Federal Support; for Higher Education The Roger L. Williams; 0-271-00730; -3 American Politics History Penn State Hatch Act Morrill Act; us; united states; usa

eBook

Published: May 26, 2021
ISBN: 9780271073019