Stanford University - History - Origins

Origins

Stanford was founded by Leland Stanford, a railroad magnate, United States Senator, and former California governor, and his wife, Jane Stanford. It is named in honor of their only child, Leland Stanford, Jr., who died in 1884 just before his 16th birthday. His parents decided to dedicate a university to their only son, and Leland Stanford told his wife, "The children of California shall be our children." The Stanfords visited Harvard's president, Charles Eliot, and asked how much it would cost to duplicate Harvard in California. Eliot replied that he supposed $15 million (in 1884 dollars) would be enough.

The university's founding Grant of Endowment from the Stanfords was issued in November 1885. Besides defining the operational structure of the university, it made several specific stipulations: "The Trustees ... shall have the power and it shall be their duty:

• To establish and maintain at such University an educational system, which will, if followed, fit the graduate for some useful pursuit, and to this end to cause the pupils, as easily as may be, to declare the particular calling, which, in life, they may desire to pursue; ...
• To prohibit sectarian instruction, but to have taught in the University the immortality of the soul, the existence of an all-wise and benevolent Creator, and that obedience to His laws is the highest duty of man.
• To have taught in the University the right and advantages of association and co-operation.
• To afford equal facilities and give equal advantages in the University to both sexes.
• To maintain on the Palo Alto estate a farm for instruction in agriculture in all its branches."

The Stanfords chose their country estate, Palo Alto Stock Farm, in Santa Clara County as the site of the university, so that the University is sometimes called "the Farm" to this day. The original "inner quad" buildings (1887–91) were designed by Frederick Law Olmsted, Francis A. Walker, Charles Allerton Coolidge, and Leland Stanford himself.

Visiting Stanford in 1903, President Theodore Roosevelt said of the campus and the university, "Now I have come to this great institution of learning and I wonder whether you yourselves fully appreciate the mere physical beauty of your surroundings. I was not prepared in the least (and I thought I was prepared for it) for the beauty of your surroundings. You have had these plans of your university made by a great architect, native to our own American soil, who himself had the sense to adapt—not to copy in servile fashion—but to adapt the old Californian architecture to the new university uses, and so we have here a great institution of learning absolutely unique, even in its outward aspect, situated in this beautiful valley with the hills in the background, under this sky, with these buildings, and if this university does not turn out the right kind of citizenship and the right kind of scholarship, I shall be more than disappointed."

In Spring 1891 the Stanfords offered the presidency of their new university to the president of Cornell University, Andrew White, but he declined and recommended David Starr Jordan, the 40-year-old president of Indiana University Bloomington. Jordan's educational philosophy was a good fit with the Stanfords' vision of a non-sectarian, co-educational school with a liberal arts curriculum, and he accepted the offer. Jordan arrived at Stanford in June 1891 and immediately set about recruiting faculty for the university's planned October opening. With such a short time frame he drew heavily on his own acquaintance in academia; of the fifteen original professors, most came either from Indiana University or his alma mater Cornell. The 1891 founding professors included Robert Allardice in mathematics, Douglas Houghton Campbell in botany, Charles Henry Gilbert in zoology, George Elliott Howard in history, Oliver Peebles Jenkins in physiology and histology, Charles David Marx in civil engineering, Fernando Sanford in physics and John Maxson Stillman in chemistry. The total initial teaching staff numbered about 35 including instructors and lecturers. For the second (1892–93) school year, Jordan was able to add additional professors including Frank Angell (psychology), Leander M. Hoskins (mechanical engineering), Walter Miller (classics), George C. Price (zoology), and Arly B. Show (history). Most of these two founding groups of professors remained at Stanford until their retirement and were referred to as the "Old Guard".

The university officially opened on October 1, 1891 to 559 students. On the university's opening day, Founding President David Starr Jordan said to Stanford's Pioneer Class: " is hallowed by no traditions; it is hampered by none. Its finger posts all point forward." Herbert Hoover and his future wife Lou Henry Hoover were in the first class; the Hoovers maintained close lifetime ties to the school.

The motto of Stanford University, selected by President Jordan, is "Die Luft der Freiheit weht." Translated from the German language, this quotation from Ulrich von Hutten means, "The wind of freedom blows." The motto was controversial during World War I, when anything in German was suspect; at that time the university disavowed that this motto was official.