A University Connected to the Land
The University of Nebraska-Lincoln was established in 1869 as what is known as Nebraska's land-grant university.
A land-grant university is so called because of the Morrill Act passed by Congress and signed by President Lincoln in 1862. This granted unclaimed federal lands in order to establish colleges for the purpose of promoting education in “agriculture and the mechanic arts”.
In addition, the Nebraska Enabling Act (1864), which allowed Nebraskans to help form a state government and join the Union, granted additional federal lands for the establishment of a “state university.”
Nebraskans combined the Morrill Act and Enabling Act lands to help establish what is now the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.
The Land-Grant Connects website provides the following.
- A history of the university land-grant process in Nebraska
- The current landowners' stories about the historic land-grant parcels
- An interactive map of the original land-grant parcels
Why Nebraska has a land-grant university legacy
LAND-GRANT HISTORY
Where grants of Nebraska land for the University are located
LAND-GRANT MAPS
How Nebraskans connect their land to our University
LAND-GRANT STORIES
