Chartered in 1766 as all-male Queen’s College in New Brunswick, New Jersey, the school was renamed Rutgers College in 1825 in honor of trustee and Revolutionary War veteran Colonel Henry Rutgers.

In the mid-19th century, Congress established the nation’s land-grant colleges in response to the Industrial Revolution. In 1864, Rutgers prevailed over Princeton to become New Jersey’s land-grant institution, tasked with offering educational access to a wider range of students who would be the new workforce for America’s expanding businesses, factories, and farms.