In 1856, the Maryland State College of Agriculture was founded, and in 1920 it merged with the Baltimore professional schools to form the University of Maryland with campuses at Baltimore (UMAB) and College Park (UMCP) (Chapter 480, Acts of 1920). In 1959, the College of Special and Continuation Studies (founded 1947) became the University of Maryland University College (UMUC). The Baltimore County (UMBC) campus was established in 1966. In 1970, the University of Maryland was organized into a five-campus system. At that time, the Maryland State College in Princess Anne (founded 1886) was restructured to form the University of Maryland Eastern Shore (UMES).
The University of Maryland achieved land-grant status in 1865 (UMCP) and 1890 (UMES) and was designated a national sea grant college in 1983.
As the components of the former University of Maryland were evolving, so too were the State's teachers colleges. The earliest of these was privately founded in 1865 in Baltimore to train African-American teachers. It would later become a State institution, move to Bowie and assume the name Bowie State University. In 1866, the first public teachers college was created as the Maryland State Normal School, now Towson State University. State Normal School No. 2, now Frostburg State University, followed in 1898. In 1900, the Baltimore City School Board laid the foundation for what would later become Coppin State College. The first normal school on the Eastern Shore opened in 1925 and now bears the name Salisbury State University. In 1963, the five former teachers colleges were brought together under the direction of a single governing body, the Board of Trustees of the State Universities and Colleges. In 1975, the University of Baltimore, privately founded fifty years earlier, joined the campuses governed by the Board.
The University of Maryland System was created in 1988 through the merger of campuses and components of the University of Maryland with those formerly under the Board of Trustees of the State Universities and Colleges (Chapter 246, Acts of 1988). In 1997, the System was renamed the University System of Maryland (Chapter 114, Acts of 1997).
Campuses of the University are located in Allegany County at Frostburg (Frostburg State University); Baltimore City (UMB, Coppin State College, University of Baltimore); Baltimore County at Catonsville (UMBC) and at Towson (Towson University); Prince George's County at Bowie (Bowie State University) and College Park (UMCP); Somerset County at Princess Anne (UMES); and Wicomico County at Salisbury (Salisbury State University). University College, from its headquarters in the Center of Adult Education at College Park, administers adult and continuing education courses and programs at sites across Maryland and in Europe and Asia. The University of Maryland System is developing an academic and research center at Shady Grove in Montgomery County and an academic center in Baltimore City.
© Copyright July 06, 1998 Maryland State Archives