Immersive Highlights in University History Exhibit

The North Carolina College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts was established using a combination of scrip funds reallocated from the University of North Carolina and funds from the Hatch Act of 1886, which established the North Carolina Agricultural Experiment Station.

Richard Stanhope Pullen gifted the original 62 acres of land to the state government “for the establishment and conduct of a College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts."

This building would later be renamed Holladay Hall in recognition of the first president of the university, Alexander Holladay. The building was constructed from 1.5 million "penitentiary bricks" made at the State Prison in Raleigh.

The first classes were held at the North Carolina College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts. Fifty-two students, at the minimum age of 14, attended. Tuition was $20 a session. Students could select from two basic curricula: agriculture and mechanics.

The Second Morrill Act became law and required states to provide technical education for African Americans. No federal money would be disbursed to any college that made distinctions between students on the basis of race. In 1891, in order to comply with the Second Morrill Act and prevent admission of African Americans to the North Carolina College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts, the state government created the North Carolina Agricultural and Technical College in Greensboro, NC.

Jose Fabio Santo Trigo of Cuba became the first international student to enroll at A&M College.

Teisaku Sugishita of Japan enrolled in 1894 and graduated with a degree in civil engineering. Teisaku was the first international student to receive a degree from NC State.

The Board of Trustees voted to open A&M College to women.

The North Carolina College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts was renamed the North Carolina State College of Agriculture and Engineering.

The cornerstone was laid for the Memorial Bell Tower, a monument to honor State College alumni who were killed during World War I.

Class of 1923 alumni Alvin M. Fountain and Bonnie Frank Norris composed the Alma Mater song. They were both in the university's ROTC program. The alma mater used more recently was an abridged version, arranged by former music department chair Dr. Robert A. Barnes in the early 1960s.

The first degrees were conferred to women at NC State. The recipients were Jane McKimmon, BS in business administration; Charlotte Nelson, BS in education; and Mary Elizabeth Yarbrough, MS in chemistry. Yarbrough was the first woman to graduate who completed all coursework while at NC State, and she was the first woman to earn a master's degree at NC State.

The new D. H. Hill Jr. Library, the east wing of the current building, was formally dedicated.

The first four African American undergraduates enrolled at North Carolina State College: Ed Carson (electrical engineering), Manuel Crockett (electrical engineering), Irwin Holmes (electrical engineering), and Walter Holmes (mechanical engineering, aerospace option).

The North Carolina State of the University of North Carolina at Raleigh was renamed the North Carolina State University at Raleigh.

North Carolina Governor (and NC State alumnus) James B. Hunt Jr. alloted the initial 355-acre parcel of land for the university's Centennial Campus. The land was previously part of the Dorothea Dix hospital.

The Native American Student Association sponsored NC State's first annual Pow Wow. The event featured Native American culture, including food, dress, and especially dance.

The African American Cultural Center opened in the new Student Center Annex, later renamed the Witherspoon Student Center. In 1992, following months of student and faculty protests, NC State administrators granted the African American Cultural Center an operating budget.

The GLBT Center opened a new office and officially became a department under the Office of Institutional Equity and Diversity, after years as a resource within Campus Activities. Justine Hollingshead was the founding director.

The library was named in honor of former four-term NC Governor and NC State alumnus James B. Hunt Jr. The new building housed the Institute for Emerging Issues.

The NC State Board of Trustees approved removing the word “Dixie” from the NC State Alma Mater and adding the word “Southern.”