Dear Old State: Penn State’s first classes held Feb. 16, 1859

It was on this day 167 years ago — Feb. 16, 1859 — that the first classes were held at the Farmers’ High School of Pennsylvania, the original name of what is now Penn State. The institution was chartered by the commonwealth in 1855 as a college of agricultural science to apply scientific principles to farming.

The term ran from February until December, allowing students the opportunity to study all phases of planting, cultivating and harvesting crops. As part of their studies, all students were required to perform manual labor on campus. They also completed coursework in subjects such as botany, zoology, philosophy and arithmetic.

The image below, published in the 1909 edition of the La Vie yearbook, shows a student’s schedule in 1859.

Since then, Penn State has continually and widely expanded its academic offerings to meet student and workforce demands, with more than 275 undergraduate majors and more than 300 graduate and professional programs today.

The gallery below gives a glimpse into some classes in the earliest years and decades at Penn State.