The Pennsylvania State University

The Pennsylvania State University was chartered as the Farmers High School in eighteen fifty-five, built on land donated by a private citizen named James Irvin. It opened to students a few years later with a mission centered on applying science to farming. In eighteen sixty-three, it was designated Pennsylvania's only land-grant institution under the Morrill Act, which committed federal support to practical higher education across the country.

Penn State was one of the earliest participants in that national system. Its curriculum, which blended liberal and practical education, helped establish the model that land-grant universities across the United States still follow today.