Land Grant (Noun)
Meaning
A grant of public land (as to a railway or college).
Classification
Nouns denoting possession and transfer of possession.
Examples
- Iowa State University was founded in 1858 as a land-grant college under the Morrill Act of 1862, which provided a grant of public land to support agricultural and mechanical arts education.
- The Transcontinental Railroad was constructed using a series of land grants, in which the government gave the railroads large tracts of land along the proposed route.
- The Ohio State University received a 150,000-acre land grant as part of the original agreement for a Morrill Act college.
- After the Civil War, the Kansas Pacific Railway was granted a land grant consisting of 9,028,899 acres, which enabled the railroad to finance its construction.
- The college received a 240,000-acre land grant, enabling it to construct buildings, hire faculty, and enroll students at low cost.