Founding Grant now online

The Archives is pleased to announce that the original copy of the Founding Grant is now available online: https://purl.stanford.edu/rb803rc6397. Although previously available in other formats, this is the first time that this one of a kind treasure, now preserved in the Archives, is available in all of its glory.

Founding of the University was accomplished by a Grant of Endowment by Senator and Mrs. Stanford, dated November 11, 1885. To make the grant legal under the constitution and statutes of the State of California, Senator Stanford procured passage on March 9, 1885, of an enabling act by the state legislature "under which a university, or universities, might be founded, endowed, and maintained in California through an ordinary deed of trust. In form a general act, it had, nevertheless, but one institution in mind, and was intended to represent exactly the plan Mr. Stanford expected to follow in his future deed of trust." (Orrin L. Elliott, "Stanford University, the First Twenty-Five Years," Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1937, p.309).

To explore the University's founding in more detail, including amendments to the Founding Grant, legislation, and court decrees, visit: https://purl.stanford.edu/bz978md4965.