For Immediate Release

October 16, 2003

University of Maryland Libraries Acquire
Historic Letter Detailing University’s Founding

The University of Maryland Libraries have acquired one of the earliest known letters detailing plans for the Maryland Agricultural College. The college was chartered in 1856 and would ultimately become the University of Maryland, College Park, in 1920.  Charles Benedict Calvert sent the hand-written letter on September 29, 1858 to J.C. Nicholson, a Baltimore businessman. Calvert was a central figure in the founding of the college and a member of the Board of Trustees, as well as a well-known philanthropist, planter and congressman. He served as acting president of the college
from 1859-1860. 

In the letter to Nicholson, Calvert talks about his early plans for the college. “We expect to teach everything that is taught in the best Universities,” he writes. He goes on to say “we shall require every student to learn Scientific and practical agriculture and mechanics which of course will require him to engage at certain hours in all the outdoor operations of the farm and work shops.”  Calvert mentions laying the cornerstone for one of the two major buildings erected for the opening of the college and expresses regret that it is not yet operational. The college formally opened its doors on October 6, 1859. 

University Archivist Anne Turkos calls the Calvert letter a “significant  document” which will provide a clearer understanding of the “vision of a university’s founder.” It is, she says, “a rare treat that has become one of the treasures of the university’s Special Collections.”  The letter was obtained with the help of the R. Lee and Evelyn Y. Hornbake Fund. 
 

A transcript of the letter follows: 

 Riversdale Sep 29th 1858

Dr Sir
 I send by same mail as this letter a pamphlet, containing the Report of our Register and other information which will probably better answer your inquiries than anything I can say.  I regret to say our institution is not as yet in operation as we only laid the corner stone on the 24th of August but they are now putting in the third floor of joists and I think we shall have it finished this winter in order to open it in the Spring.  We expect to teach everything that is taught in the best Universities and in addition to those branches we shall require every student to learn Scientific and practical agriculture and mechanics which of course will require him to engage at certain hours in all the ^outdoor operations of the farm and work shops.  They will also be required ^to study agricultural Chemistry, Botany, Mineralogy, Geology, Entomology, Animal and Vegetable Physiology, Mathematics in general and particularly as applied to agriculture such as surveying, levelling, draining &and in truth every thing that will make the student a practical and scientific man.  We desire to have an Institution superior to any other and 
we shall have such a one if the farmers are only true to themselves and give us sufficient means to erect the buildings and fairly start the Institution.  Your letter would have been sooner replied to but I have been out on a collecting tour.  We shall be happy to have your son when we get in operation and in the mean time we shall be pleased to record your name as a Subscriber to the Institution for such lien as you may see fit to subscribe.

                             Very respectfully

                              Yr obt servant 
                               Chas. B. Calvert

Call & See me in the
Morning
L. M Reynolds

J. C. Nicholson Esq.
No. 62 South High St.
Baltimore, Md

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