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History of
Vanderbilt University :
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Commodore Cornelius Vanderbilt was in his 79th year when he
decided to make the gift that founded Vanderbilt University in the spring of 1873. The $1 million that he
gave to endow and build the university was the Commodore's only major philan-
thropy. Methodist Bishop Holland N.
McTyeire of Nashville, a cousin of the Commodore's young second wife, went to New York for medical treat-
ment
early in 1873 and spent time recovering in the Vanderbilt mansi-
on. He won the Commodore's admir-
ation and
support for the project of building a university in the South that would "contribute to strengthe-
ning
the ties which should exist between all sections of our common country."
McTyeire chose the site for the campus, supervised the construction of buildings and personally planted many of
the trees that today make Vanderbilt a National Arboretum. At the outset, the university consisted of one Main
Building (now Kirkland Hall), an astronomical observatory and houses for professors. Landon C. Garland was
Vanderbilt's first chancellor, serving from 1875 to 1893. He advised McTyeire in sele-
cting the faculty,
arranged the curr-
iculum and set the policies of the university.
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