Leland Stanford
2 of the 6 encyclopedias on this shelf carry an entry for Leland Stanford. Both are reproduced below, so you can see where they agree and where they differ.
Aiton's Encyclopedia (1910)
Junior, University, an institution of higher learning at Palo Alto, California. The site is picturesque. It is situated in the Santa Clara Valley, about three miles from the Bay of San Francisco . The campus comprises 9,000 acres of land, rising to the foothills of the Santa Mareno Mountains. The institution was founded by Mr. and Mrs. Leland Stanford as a memorial to their only son, who died at the age of sixteen. It was opened to students October 1, 1891. It is a co-educational institution. The number of women who may attend, however, is limited to 500. The faculty numbers about 130. There are about 1,500 students in attendance. Tuition is free to residents of California. Non-residents pay a small registration fee. The institution is strictly undenominational. Affairs are managed by a board of trustees. The original endowment was about $30,000,000, which has been increased largely of late. The buildings are patterned after the old Spanish missions of California and Mexico. They are of buff sandstone with red tile roofs. They form two quadrangles one within the other. The inner quadrangle is composed of one story buildings. The outer buildings are two stories in height. There are the usual departments of college work, including engineering. Professional schools have not been established. Degrees are conferred three times a year, in May, September, and January. The buildings were injured by the earthquake of 1906. Beautiful statuary and decorations--works of art that can hardly be restored--were destroyed.
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
JUNIOR, cational no co-educational non- UNIVERSITY, a sectarian institution in Palo Alto, Cal.; in 1891; reported at the close of Palo Alto, Ca founded , 345; at the close 1919: Professors and instructors volumes in the library, structors, 84 students, 2,441; 300,000; productive funds, about in the libra about ; number funds, abc $25,000,000; income, $1,400,000 president, Ray Ly- 60,000; nu of graduates, 1,142; Wilbur, M.D. Edent, Hay man
What Has Changed in the Last Century
Both entries describe Leland Stanford Junior University, the memorial Leland and Jane Stanford built for their son; Aiton's 1910 account notes tuition "free to residents of California," a cap of 500 on the number of women admitted, and that "professional schools have not been established." All three have gone: Stanford began charging tuition in 1920, the quota on women was loosened in 1933 and abandoned entirely by the 1970s, and the university now runs major schools of medicine, law, business and education. Where Collier's counted 2,441 students in 1919 and funds of about $25,000,000, Stanford today enrolls roughly 17,000 and holds an endowment in the tens of billions of dollars, having become the intellectual anchor of Silicon Valley. Ray Lyman Wilbur, the president Collier's names, went on to serve as Herbert Hoover's Secretary of the Interior.
Written for this edition, 2026.