This collection contains a carbon copy of a 1867 letter written to Captain M. F. Maury from Francis Henney Smith at Virginia Military Institute. The letter discusses Smith’s recent visit to Richmond where he spoke on the behalf of the Virginia Military Institute. During the visit, he was concerned with the issue of a land-grant endowment for a school that would concentrate on agriculture and mechanic arts. Later, two land-grant schools were established in Virginia - Virginia Agricultural and Mechanical College (now Virginia Tech) and Hampton Normal and Agricultural Institute (now Hampton University). (In 1920, what-is-now Virginia State University took over the land grant status from Hampton Institute.)