History
In March 1863, a Normal School Act passed into law, and that fall, Farmington was chosen from a list of possible locations for a normal school — the first public institution of higher education in the State of Maine. The first class graduated from the Western State Normal School in 1866. The school merged into the University of Maine System in 1968 to become "the University of Maine at Farmington."
Many early graduates attended the school for its liberal arts offerings alone. Among these were the Stanley brothers, famous for building the Stanley Steamer automobile; and John Frank Stevens, engineer of the Panama Canal. Another famous graduate from the university is comedian Bob Marley, who graduated with a degree in community health. Interest in the liberal arts continued unabated until the college offered its first degree programs in the liberal arts in 1971. By the 1974–75 school year, nearly 300 students were enrolled in liberal arts majors.
Read more about this topic: University Of Maine At Farmington
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“History takes time.... History makes memory.”
—Gertrude Stein (1874–1946)
“Tell me of the height of the mountains of the moon, or of the diameter of space, and I may believe you, but of the secret history of the Almighty, and I shall pronounce thee mad.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“In the history of the human mind, these glowing and ruddy fables precede the noonday thoughts of men, as Aurora the sun’s rays. The matutine intellect of the poet, keeping in advance of the glare of philosophy, always dwells in this auroral atmosphere.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)