The University of Minnesota was founded as a preparatory school in 1851, seven years before the territory of Minnesota became a state. Financial problems forced the school to close during the Civil War, but it reopened in 1867. It survived partly because of the help of Minneapolis entrepreneur John Sargent Pillsbury, a University regent, state senator, and governor, who is known today as the "Father of the University." The Morrill Act, or Land-Grant Act, signed into law by President Lincoln in 1862, also played a big part in the school's survival. The act gave each state a grant of land within its borders; the income from the land was to be used to provide education for people of the state.

In 1869 the school reorganized and became an institution of higher education. William Watts Folwell was inaugurated as the first president of the University on December 22, 1869. There were only nine faculty members and 18 students that year. Four years later at the first commencement, 2 students received bachelor of arts degrees. The first doctor of philosophy degree was awarded in 1888. In that same year, the Department of Agriculture opened on the University Farm in St. Paul. The Duluth campus joined the University in 1947; the Morris campus opened in 1960, the Crookston campus in 1966. A campus in Waseca, which opened in 1971, was closed in 1992.

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