Illinois Industrial University

The Illinois Industrial University (1867-1885) is the founding name of what became the University of Illinois (1885-1982), and is now the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. The University was one of the 37 universities created under the first Morrill Land-Grant Act; the act distributed public land across the U.S. for the creation of agricultural and industrial educational institutes. The university’s first president, Professor John Milton Gregory, wished to establish a university grounded in the liberal arts tradition, a sentiment that was at odds with public desire for a solely industrial educational institute. The university’s blended offering of both agricultural, mechanical and liberal arts education led to the institute’s renaming to ‘University of Illinois’ in 1885.