THE BIBLICAL CAUTION ABOUT PUTTING NEW WINE in old wineskins aptly illustrates the curricular challenges facing the Illinois Industrial University at its founding.1 New wine—an emerging new emphasis on practical education, agriculture, engineering, and military studies—would likely burst the older wineskin of classical higher education embodied in the liberal arts. Existing curricular structures could not sustain the expanding additions of the practical disciplines.
The Morrill Act of 1862 ushered in a new era in American higher education. Through the sale of federal land, states were to use revenues to maintain at least one college “where the leading object shall be, without excluding other scientific and classical studies, and including military tactics, to teach such branches of learning as are related to agriculture and the mechanic arts, . . . in order to promote the liberal and practical education of the industrial classes in the several pursuits and professions in...
