Stanford Visitor Center

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Stanford University’s campus is located within the traditional territory of the Muwekma Ohlone Tribe, on land Leland Stanford purchased in the 1870s and 1880s. The university has been engaged with Ohlone sites and communities since its founding in the mid-1880s. During the 1960s, Native American students advocated for and worked with the administration to increase opportunities for Indigenous peoples at Stanford. Archaeological research took place throughout the 20th century but without the important component of Ohlone stakeholder collaboration until the 1980s, when Stanford and the Ohlone community built mutual trust around issues of repatriation and consultation. Since then, the university and Native peoples have deepened their relationship and continue to partner in Native American Cultural Center programming, Native American Studies learning opportunities, Stanford American Indian Organization events, community-led archaeology, historic interpretation, and a developing Native plant garden.

Today, the university has a vibrant community of Native students, faculty, staff, and alumni. More than 400 students on campus represent over 50 tribes, and “Muwekma-Tah-Ruk ~ The House of the People” is a residence that celebrates the diversity of Indigenous peoples throughout the Americas and Pacific Islands.

Stanford University’s full name is Leland Stanford Junior University, It is named in memory of the only child of Leland and Jane Stanford, Leland Stanford, Jr., who died of typhoid fever in 1884 at age 15. Stanford University was officially founded the year following young Leland’s death and opened its doors to its first students on October 1, 1891.

The Stanfords were a prominent family in the late 19th century, with Leland Stanford having served as both governor of California during the first two years of the Civil War, and later as a United States senator. He is perhaps best known as one of the “Big Four” of California, heading up the Central Pacific Railroad and the drive to complete the first transcontinental railroad.

Leland Stanford, Jr. was a bright and inquisitive boy who loved to learn. He developed a passion at a young age for collecting art and archeological artifacts, and hoped to one day create his own art museum. Immediately following their son’s death, the Stanfords determined that they would use their wealth to do something to honor their beloved son ’s passions for education and the arts, and to benefit other children. After considering multiple options, they chose to build a university and a museum on the 8000+ acres of land that comprised their Palo Alto Stock Farm. To this day, Stanford University is still referred to as “The Farm.”

In founding the university, the Stanford family created a university with many priorities that differed from other universities of the time. The Founding Grant states that the university’s objective is “to qualify its students for personal success, and direct usefulness in life” and its purpose “to promote the public welfare by exercising an influence in behalf of humanity and civilization.”

The Founding Grant also laid out five key founding tenets, four of which have survived to today. Stanford University from the outset was created as a coeducational university, offering education to both men and women, as well as a nonsectarian institution without association to any particular religion. The grant also decreed that the university be open to students of all different backgrounds. This was helped along by the fourth tenet, which decreed that Stanford University would be tuition-free. Unfortunately for students, this tenet is no longer true today, as the first tuition was instituted in 1920 ($40 per quarter!). The final tenet declares that none of the land that the Stanfords conveyed to the university could ever be sold. Thus, the sprawling campus lands still total over 8000 acres. The easily navigable central campus area, however, is contained within a much more reasonably sized area known as the Campus Drive loop.