UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — There is a longstanding myth that Penn State started out as a high school. But the truth is that from the University's founding, in 1855, it was incorporated as an agricultural college with the power to grant baccalaureate degrees.

The fledgling institution's aim was to encourage the application of science to farming. But many farmers distrusted the traditional college curriculum that emphasized the study of rhetoric, ancient languages, philosophy, and other "classical" subjects. To allay these suspicions, the University’s founders named the college the Farmers’ High School of Pennsylvania.

In the new college's first known official seal, the emblems symbolic of literature and the sciences are prominently displayed with symbols of agriculture. Founding President Evan Pugh and the early Trustees, from the beginning, had determined that the academic program would be conducted on a collegiate level.

Pugh himself designed the seal. Encircling the symbols is the inscription "Farmers' High School of Pennsylvania”. Beneath the symbols appears "INS. SEP. 1855", referring to when the site for the school was determined, or instituted.

The signing of the institution's charter took place on Feb. 22, 1855. However, it wasn’t until Sept. 12, 1855, when the new school’s board of trustees met in Harrisburg to select the final offer, from several proposals, of a site for the Farmers’ High School. After much deliberation, counterproposals and attempts to postpone the decision, the Centre County site — a 200-acre offer with the option of buying an additional 200 acres of adjoining land — was chosen, and the new school finally had a home.

It was nearly four years later, on Feb. 19, 1859, that 69 of the 100 students accepted for enrollment arrived for the school term. The term ran from February until December, allowing students the opportunity to study all phases of planting, cultivating and harvesting crops. 

Some of the students who had more advanced training and backgrounds at entrance earned their degrees after three terms. Eleven men comprised the first graduating class of 1861.

In 1862 the Farmers' High School changed its name to the Agricultural College of Pennsylvania. Shortly thereafter, in 1863, it was designated the commonwealth's sole land-grant institution by an act of the Pennsylvania General Assembly and signed into law by Gov. Andrew Curtin. In 1874, it became the Pennsylvania State College, and in 1953, President Milton S. Eisenhower requested and gained permission to elevate the school to university status as The Pennsylvania State University.