CHAMPAIGN, Ill. – The University of Illinois will display the Morrill Act, one of the seminal documents of higher education in the United States, beginning Sept. 30 at the Krannert Art Museum and Kinkead Pavilion, 500 E. Peabody Drive, Champaign.
The document, which only recently has been available for public viewing outside of Washington, D.C., will be unveiled at the Morrill Act Exhibition Preview and Opening Reception at 4:30 p.m. A screening of the public television documentary “Lincoln: Prelude to the Presidency” follows the opening reception and preview of the installation.
The public exhibition will serve as a focal point for lectures and educational events as part of the university’s ongoing celebration of the Lincoln Bicentennial.
Signed into law by President Abraham Lincoln on July 2, 1862, the Morrill Act enabled states to make higher education accessible to all through the establishment of land-grant colleges and universities. The new land-grant institutions emphasized agriculture and the mechanical arts, which opened opportunities to thousands of farmers and working people previously excluded from higher education.
Sixty-nine colleges were funded by these land grants, including the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cornell University and the University of Illinois.
The schedule:
- Oct. 1: “The Morrill Act: The Land-Grant Roots of a Great University,” Krannert Art Museum and Kinkead Pavilion, 500 E. Peabody Drive, Champaign. Ongoing through Oct. 31.
- Oct. 2: “A Presidential Press Conference With Abraham Lincoln,” featuring nationally known Lincoln presenter George Buss, of Freeport, Ill., and Robert J. Lenz, of Bloomington, Ill., as press secretary, 3 p.m., Tryon Festival Theatre, Krannert Center for the Performing Arts, 500 S. Goodwin Ave., Urbana.
- Oct. 7: “Lincoln’s Illinois Today: A Vision for Education,” a two-hour symposium moderated by Mary Kalantzis, the dean of the U. of I. College of Education, examining the education in Illinois today and comparing it with Lincoln’s vision for a broad-based education system, 4 p.m., Alice Campbell Alumni Center Ballroom and Atrium, 601 S. Lincoln Ave., Urbana.
- Oct. 13: “Practice as Theory: Lincoln’s Address to the Temperance Society, February 22, 1842,” featuring Michael Leff, chair of the department of communication at the University of Memphis, 3:30 p.m., Third Floor, Levis Faculty Center, 919 W. Illinois St., Urbana.
- Oct. 23: “The Lincoln Hall Restoration Kick-off,” 4 p.m., Lincoln Hall, 702 S. Wright St., Urbana.
For more information, visit http://engagement.illinois.edu/lincoln.html.
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