Happy first day of classes, Class of 1868!
Illinois welcomed its first class of 50 students (like these agriculture students in 1868 on the left) and just two faculty members to the newly charted Illinois Industrial University on March 2, 1868. A little smaller than this Class of 2020 at Sights and Sounds in the fall of 2016 (photo on the right).
The university property consisted of a considerable amount of land, but only one building, a five story structure erected as the “Urbana-Champaign Institute” (and also known as “The Elephant”) over a period of about seven years from 1860-1867. Tuition was $15 a semester, and a student room rented for four dollars per semester. Students furnished their own coal or wood for heating their room.
Want to learn more about #ILLINOIS150 history? Visit the sesquicentennial timeline or share your own #ILLINOIS story at http://150.illinois.edu/.