University of Rhode Island - Renaissance / Grist Yearbook (Kingston, RI)

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S. Johnson Cleaning Brush in front of South Hall 1896 (Library Archives) In an atmosphere of spirited debate, a Rhode Island tradition, R.l. carried on a lively experiment in democratic government. When President Lincoln signed the Morrill Land-Grant Act in 1862, a nation-wide venture bagan. After three decades of frustration and disappointment the legislature gave the Land-Grant college separate status by establishing the Rhode Island College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts at Kingston, now known as the University of Rhode Island. LMN In many ways, the University ' s history is a reflection of the state itself. It is a record of crises encountered, hardships weathered, and victories won. The wallop of the 20th century has changed the size and scope of URI so dramatically that there are only a few lingering traces of the small agricultural college established in the 1890’s. 6

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were the political, military, commercial, agricultural, religious, social diversity that continues to shape the uncertain destiny of the colony on the shores of Narragansett Bay. The historic buildings in this area remain the scene of an intriguing drama of contrasts, reminders of a climactic phase of the social, economic, cultural evolution that was and is still taking place in America. 5

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B. Murray However, the basic principles and purposes remain intact. The goal of a university is to take a person who is still basically only an extension of others and to develop an individual. It is no mean achievement, for individuality is the essential link toward the attainment of that for which we have always struggled — independence. And that ' s what it’s all about.