The Morrill Act of 1862 provided for the funding of colleges by granting federally controlled land to the states for them to develop or sell. These land grant colleges were initially intended to further education in agriculture, sciences, and technology. After becoming a state in 1889, Washington became eligible for these federal grants, and in 1890 the state authorized what would eventually evolve into Washington State University.
This collection consists of two 54 x 52 cm. ledgers containing records of examination, appraisement, and disposition of lands conveyed to the State of Washington by the United States for use and support of agricultural colleges (volume 1) and for the establishment and maintenance of a scientific school (volume 2) between 1895 and 1902. These land grants were part of the basis for the creation and funding of the Washington Agricultural College and School of Science, later the State College of Washington, then Washington State University. Also includes an inserted report on timber cruise and land sales, titled "Final Report upon Timber Cruising in the Summer of 1912 for the State College of Washington," a handwritten “List of State College (Scientific School) lands to be sold June 6, 1908,” and a copy of the State of Washington Office of the Commissioner of Public Lands’ “List of school, granted and other public lands… to be sold at public auction on Saturday, June 1st, 1912.”
This collection is arranged in a single series.
This collection is open and available for research use.
[Item Description] Washington (State). Office of Commissioner of Public Lands Land Grant Ledgers, 1901-1912
Manuscripts, Archives, and Special Collections, Washington State University Libraries, Pullman, WA.
We’ve been unable to determine provenance for this collection; we know that by 1995 these were retained in Washington State University Libraries’ Manuscripts, Archives, and Special Collections as Cage 494. That identification number indicates they were likely received at MASC no later than 1979. They were recataloged as Archives 334 in September, 2013.
Materials were retained exactly as received, and were rehoused for preservation purposes in 2013.
This collection is indexed under the following headings in the online catalog. Researchers desiring materials about related topics, persons, or places should search the catalog using these headings.