“Campus in the Fifties, University of Georgia, Athens, Georgia. First State University in United States. In 1784 shortly after the Treaty of Versailles, granting independence to each colony, then a state, the legislature of Georgia gave 40,000 acres for the endowment of a University. In 1785 the charter was granted.”

Chartered by the Georgia General Assembly in 1785, UGA was the first university in America to be created by a state government, and the principles of its charter helped lay the foundation for the American system of public higher education.

Image by Stephanie C. Roberts