Morrill Hall

Object NameBowl

Date1880-1889

MediumPorcelain

Dimensions4 in. diameter (10.2 cm)

ClassificationsDecorative Arts, Ceramics

Credit LineGift of Elizabeth Sindsor. In the Farm House Museum Collection, Farm House Museum, University Museums, Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa.

Object number77.14.1

Status

On view

Collections

Decorative Arts

CultureEnglish

Label TextIn 1890 Morrill Hall is constructed to fill the need for a campus library, chapel, and museum. Named to honor the US Senator, Justin Smith Morrill, who sponsored the Morrill Act, which established the land-grant college system. Morrill Hall was built at a cost of less than $30,000 and was dedicated June 12, 1891. The new chapel seats show up late, so the carpenters work overnight to install them in time for the dedication. At the Morrill Hall dedication in June 1891, Professor Charles Bessey speaks of his first coming to Iowa State in 1870 - there were no trees and only Farm House, Main and two professor’s homes, “Those were not days of comfort. There were no graceful gravel drives. There were no comfortable walks. There were no gardens. There were no shrubs to give beauty to the landscape. Those were the days of beginnings. They were days of small beginnings . . . It is a noble thing to build Colleges. It is a noble thing to richly endow them with buildings, books, apparatus, and all the material for apparatus, and the material for the study of nature, and man and man’s history and development.” Since its construction, it has been home to zoology, entomology, and geology classes and labs, Agriculture Extension Offices, the Printing Office, Photo Service, and even a barber shop from 1905-1908. After extensive renovations, the building opened in 2007 as home to the Christian Petersen Art Museum, the Textile and Clothing Museum, and University classrooms.

MarkingsMade in England for S.G. Hamilton. Ames, Iowa J.Mc.Q.&S.

Locations