Commemorative Tree

Type of Memorial

Commemorative Tree

Donor

Iowa State horticulture professor William Graves

Location

North of Beardshear Hall

Notes

This American Beech, native to United States Senator Justin Morrill's home state of Vermont, was planted on July 2, 2012 to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the signing of the Morrill Act by President Abraham Lincoln. Senator Morrill's legislation created land-grant universities in each state. On September 11, 1862, Iowa's General Assembly was the first in the nation to accept the provisions of the Act, designating the fledgling Iowa Agricultural College and Model Farm (now Iowa State University of Science and Technology) the first land-grant institution in the nation, open to the people, regardless of gender, ethnicity or social or economic class, and responsible for graduating students who not only were learned in classics knowledge and theory, but also engineering, agriculture, and military science and how to practically apply that knowledge.