Rare opportunity for a Thursday evening museum visit and program!

Chippewa Valley Museum will open to the public on the evening of Thursday July 27 to host Dr. Jon Parmenter of Cornell University’s Department of History. Program participation is available at standard admission rates (FREE for museum members). Pre-registration for in-person attendance is required – Use the button below.

Members, log in at prompt screen prior to entering registration info to receive your member discount. 

Zoom participation in this program is available at no cost. Register for Zoom.

Information about this program and presenter:

“Cornell University’s Land Agency Office in Eau Claire, Wisconsin: Outpost of an Educational Financial Empire, 1877-1904”

Cornell University received nearly one million acres of public land from the United States government as New York State’s designated “land-grant” university under the terms of the Morrill Act of 1862.  University founder Ezra Cornell used this federal donation to select over one-half million acres of prime pine timberland in the State of Wisconsin.  To optimize financial returns on these holdings, the University operated a staffed, storefront retail land agency at various locations in Eau Claire from 1877 to 1904.  This lecture will explain the role played by the Eau Claire office in the broader history of Cornell University’s ascent to one of the wealthiest universities in the nation at the turn of the twentieth century.

Jon Parmenter teaches early American and Native American history at Cornell University.  He is currently completing a book entitled Dispossessed: Cornell University’s Origins in Indian Country.