Inaugural Address 1834
A Glory to the State
Inaugural Address Delivered at the Opening of Newark College Professor John Holmes Agnew, Newark, Delaware, May 8, 1834
University of Delaware Archives and Records Management
1843
Throughout the 1810s and 1820s, efforts were made by the Academy’s Board of Trustees to establish a college. On February 5, 1833, the Delaware Legislature chartered Newark College. The college opened its doors to students in May 1834. Agnew, one of three original faculty members, called the opening of Newark College one of the most interesting and important events to have transpired in Delaware.
This exhibition’s title comes from the closing of Agnew’s speech, where he noted that all involved with the new college “…may hope to rear an institution which shall be an honor to its founders, a blessing to its pupils, and a glory to the state.”