Dedication and Inauguration of the Vanderbilt University: Nashville, Tennessee, Oct. 3,4, 1875

Dedication And Inauguration Of The Vanderbilt University: Nashville, Tennessee, Oct. 3,4, 1875This volume compiles the Dedication and Inauguration Exercises of Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee, held in October 1875, and documents the founding of the institution. The text opens with a Preface that recounts the university’s origin, including Cornelius Vanderbilt’s gift of funds and the renaming of the project, the creation of the Endowment Fund, and the condition of building the campus. The main sections cover Dedication Exercises, with sermons by Bishop DoGGETT and Bishop WIGHTMAN, followed by Dedication Hymns and the Doxology, then Inauguration Exercises featuring Governor Porter’s address and other leaders (Charles F. Deems, A. Lipscomb), and the installation of the faculties. The volume also includes the Invocation of the Biblical Department by Thomas O. Summers, D.D., and essays on the relationship of the university to religion, general education, and biblical studies. The narrative emphasizes the union of science, literature, and Christian faith, and the responsibilities of the institution to uphold intellectual and moral culture in the post-Civil War South.