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Mississippi State University

Library update: Recent database changes

The Morrill Act, Celebrating Land-Grant Universities

In 1862, Justin S. Morrill sponsored an Act establishing Land-grant institutions with the purpose of educating young Americans in agricultural and mechanical sciences.

Primary Sources on the Morrill Act Available Online

There are many primary sources online relating to the Morrill Act. These include:

Primary Documents on the Morrill Act
National Archives Copy of the Morrill Act
House and Senate Resolutions
- House
- Senate
The Abraham Lincoln Papers
- Abraham Lincoln Papers at the Library of Congress
19th Century publications on education and the Morrill Act
- Progress in Agriculture by Education and Government Aid in Atlantic Monthly April 1882
- Statistics of land-grant colleges and agricultural experiment stations, 1912

Selected Titles Available at the MSU Libraries

A selected list of books on the Morrill Act and land-grant institutions, that are available in the MSU Libraries:

Land-grant universities and their continuing challenge
Anderson, G. Lester
Justin Smith Morrill: father of the land-grant colleges
Cross, Coy F.
E-book
Colleges for Our Land and Time; The Land-Grant Idea in American Education
Eddy, Edward Danforth
The Magnificent Charter: The Origin and Role of the Morrill Land-Grant Colleges and Universities
Edmond, Joseph Bailey
The Origins of the Land-Grant Colleges and State Universities: A Brief Account of the Morrill Act of 1862 and Its Results
Nevins, Allan
The Origins of Federal Support for Higher Education: George W. Atherton and the Land-Grant College Movement
Williams, Roger L.

Morrill Act Conference

Thinking Land Grants: A 'Cerebration' of the 150th Anniversary of the Morrill Land-Grant Act

October 3-6, 2012 on the Mississippi State University campus