Campus

On September 10, 1794, at the edge of the American frontier, a spark of an idea was kindled. That flame has grown into a beacon that continues to grow stronger.

In 1859, US Representative Justin Morrill helped shape the future of Tennessee and the rest of the nation with the idea that higher education should be available to everyone. President Abraham Lincoln signed into law the Morrill Act of 1862, which established land-grant colleges to teach agriculture and the mechanical arts to anyone who desired to learn, not just the privileged. The spirit of the “people’s colleges” continues at UT today through teaching, research, and extension work.

A timeline of integration at the University of Tennessee.

Volunteers have always worked to make the world a better place—it’s what we do. Read about a few of our alumni, faculty, staff, and friends who have helped to light the way for others.

The climax of Southern university desegregation came in the early 1960s with rancorous confrontations and even riots on some campuses of the Deep South. The white leadership of the University of Tennessee was reluctant, but its path to racial integration was quieter and less acrimonious.

From our roads to our schools and hospitals, you don’t have to look far to see the positive impact the University of Tennessee is making in all 95 counties of the state we call home.

Betsey Creekmore possesses an encyclopedic knowledge of University of Tennessee history and traditions—that she has translated into an enduring gift to present and future Vols: an online encyclopedia of university history, facts, legends, and traditions.

With the purchase of the Hill in 1826, our institution began building and expanding. Here are the 10 oldest buildings that are still standing on campus today.

Likely the country’s oldest theatre in the round, when the Carousel was built it was not even on any campus.

Imagine a financial wizard who enabled the first subway tunnel under the Hudson River, teamed up with actors to cofound United Artists, served as secretary of the US treasury and a US senator from California, and ran for president twice.