The American Cyclopædia (1879)/Howard University

HOWARD UNIVERSITY, an institution of learning in Washington, D. C., organized by a special act of congress in 1867, and named from Gen. O. O. Howard, one of its founders. It was designed to afford advanced instruction especially to colored students, but in the admissions no distinction is made as to color or sex, and among its instructors and students are white and colored persons of both sexes. The university grounds are near the head of Seventh street, where are grouped nine buildings, the chief of which is four stories high and contains rooms for lectures and recitations, a chapel, library, philosophical apparatus, museum, and offices. Miner hall is three stories high, with rooms for 100 young women, while Clark hall has accommodations for 200 male students. The general management of the institution is vested in a board of 21 trustees. The university comprises a normal department with a two years' course of study, including also, for younger students, the model school and the Miner school; the preparatory, with a course of three years; the collegiate, four years; the theological, two years; the law, two years; the medical, three years; and the military, commercial, and musical departments. An examination is required for admission to the collegiate department, and upon the completion of the course the degree of A. B. is conferred. Special efforts have been made to give the law department the most complete facilities for imparting a thorough legal education. From this school have graduated 49 young men and one young woman. The whole number of instructors connected with the university is 28, including 4 in the collegiate, 5 in the theological, 3 in the law, and 9 in the medical department. The number of students in 1872-'3 was 238 in the normal, 100 in the preparatory, 35 in the collegiate, 26 in the theological, 67 in the law, 45 in the medical, 84 in the commercial, and 21 in the musical department; total, after deducting repetitions, 567. About two thirds of the students are colored. Indigent students may be relieved from paying the tuition fee.

The university possesses a library of 7,500 volumes, a mineralogical cabinet, a museum of curiosities, and a picture gallery. Although the government of the United States aided in the establishment of the university, it is now dependent upon contributions and fees received from students. More than $100,000 toward a proposed endowment of $300,000 has been subscribed. Gen. Howard was president of the university until the latter part of 1873, when he resigned, and John M. Langston (colored), dean of the law department, was appointed vice president.