With the Morrill Land-Grant College Act of 1862, the United States Congress provided funding through the sale of public lands to establish institutions of higher education across the country. The creation of these institutions, fueled by a need for instruction in agriculture and the "mechanic arts" (engineering), brought the federal and state governments into the support of higher education. The new state of West Virginia accepted the terms of the Morrill Act in 1863, and Congress specifically included the state in the terms of the act in 1864.
The new West Virginia University Agricultural College, officially founded February 7, 1867, was renamed West Virginia University in 1868, and the land-grant mission has shaped the University's overall curriculum ever since. Because departments now within Arts and Sciences offer courses to support the curriculum in engineering and agriculture, that land-grant mission has also shaped the Eberly College of Arts and Sciences and its predecessor units. Beginning with Marmaduke Herbert Dent, the University's first graduate in 1870, few undergraduates have received a degree from WVU without at least one course from the Eberly College of Arts and Sciences or its predecessor units.
The Board of Visitors, in June 1867, created the foundation for the future College of Arts and Sciences when it announced a faculty that consisted of a professor of mental and moral science, a professor of ancient languages, a professor of English literature, a professor of mathematics and military tactics, and a professor of philosophy and natural science. In addition to serving as the governing members of the University, these men taught disciplines that, except for military science, would come under the College of Arts and Sciences in 1895. Arts and Sciences disciplines, therefore, were part of the curriculum of the new West Virginia Agricultural College from the day students assembled for the first classes in September of 1867.
In 1894, Powell Benton Reynolds, who served as acting President between 1893 and 1895, set fourth a vision of a "new university," arguing that West Virginia University was "entering upon a new era" the could enable it to "rank with the best state universities in the country." Reynolds' plan for reorganization would make it "necessary to renew all the courses, and to readjust the work and the functions and relation of the Faculty, so as to secure co-ordination, harmony, and efficiency, and bring the University up abreast of the times."
By 1895, in response to Reynolds' plan, West Virginia University had in place many of the people, courses, and facilities that would comprise the College of Arts and Sciences when it was organized that summer.
When the College of Arts and Sciences was established in 1895, it consisted of nine "Academic Schools": English, Modern Languages, Ancient Languages, Mathematics, Chemistry and Physics, Biology, Geology and Mineralogy, History and Political Science, and Metaphysics. WVU's total enrollment for 1895-1896 was 398.
In 1897, the University hired a new President, Jerome Hall Raymond. The 28-year-old Raymond had taught history, political science, and sociology at several institutions. He was young and ambitious, driven to make WVU a modern university. Raymond's impact on WVU and the College of Arts and Sciences was momentous, with accomplishments including University extension, summer education, improvements in state pedagogy, and the hiring of the first women faculty members.
In addition to expanding course offerings, Raymond introduced the electives system in 1899, following the example of Harvard. He called this system "the most important principle in education" because it was "based upon the proposition that no two people are alike; that any attempt to make people alike must result in total failure, and would prove a calamity to the race." The College of Arts and Sciences, because it was diverse, was the chief source for these elective courses.
In 1901, the Board of Regents unanimously chose Daniel Boardman Purinton as the University's next President. Purinton would be the dominant personality in the College of Arts and Sciences during the first decade of the 20th century, for he served as both head to the College and President from 1901 to 1911. In the early 1970s, the President's House would be renamed the Purinton House in his honor.
During these years, the graduate program in Arts and Sciences was essentially the only viable one in the University. Master's degree required ten courses and a thesis "showing original ability and marked attainment in the major subject." The Ph.D. dissertation had to give "evidence of the student's power of independent investigation" and make "a contribution to knowledge" in the target subject.
As Arts and Sciences expanded, so did its facilities. The new north wing of University Hall (now Woodburn Hall) was built in 1900, and the University still desperately needed the space that would be gained by the construction of the south wing, finally began in 1909.
In 1910, the West Virginia Alpha Chapter Chapter of Phi Beta Kappa, the oldest collegiate honor society, was established.
Thomas Eward Hodges, a former Arts and Sciences faculty member, became president of the University in 1911, with President William Howard Taft on campus for the inauguration. Frank Butler Trotter became Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences that year, and served until 1916. According to the 1913-1914 WVU catalogue, the College of Arts and Sciences had 20 official departments. The total enrollment for Arts and Sciences, freshman through graduate, was 436.
Curriculum changes were frequent during these years. After a first year of prescribed work, Arts and Sciences students could choose a major area, but "should continue to take a liberal amount of work in languages, philosophy, and sciences."
In, 1916, Frank Butler Trotter was named President of the University. Far more important for WVU students than the naming of a new president, though, was the enactment of the selective service law the following year. Many students enlisted immediately, while those who remained protested taking final exams after learning "that many universities were canceling exams in the months immediately following the United States Declaration of war." It was the first time that students protesting their government's actions during a war would disrupt the University's schedule.
