In the late 19th century, the westward expansion of the United States and the Gold Rush attracted people and businesses to California, among them was railroad magnate Leland Stanford, who also served as California’s 8th governor and later senator. After the tragic loss of their only child, Leland, Jr., in 1884 to typhoid, Leland and his wife, Jane Lathrop Stanford, decided to build a university in their son’s name as the most fitting memorial on their 8,180-acre Palo Alto stock farm.

The campus is located on the traditional territory of the Muwekma Ohlone Tribe, who suffered from compulsory labor, disease, and dislocation by the Spanish missions since 1769 and later Mexican and U.S. rule in the 19th century (Stanford Campus Engagement). During the 1960s, Native American students advocated for and worked with the administration to increase opportunities for Indigenous peoples at Stanford (Stanford University). The collaboration between Stanford and the Ohlone stakeholder is finally established in the 1980s. Today, the university has a vibrant community of Native students, faculty, staff, and alumni, with more than 400 students on campus representing over 50 tribes (Stanford University).

         In addition to gifting the land, Leland and Jane sought to finance the university with the great amounts of wealth they amassed through the construction of the transcontinental railroads. The Stanfords “helped individual Chinese immigrants with personal and business matters” and  are “remembered for their generosity and protection against a violent and hostile society” (Chang, 2019). However, in public, Leland was a political opportunist who made racist comments against the Chinese to get himself elected to office. In addition, Chinese immigrant workers’ contribution to the construction of the railroads and Stanford’s campus and their hardships during this part of history are often neglected. In 2012, the Chinese Railroad Workers in North America Project was launched at Stanford with scholars, students, and volunteers from around the world to recover Chinese railroad worker history.

         As the modern research university was taking form, the Stanfords traveled the continent to visit other universities such as Cornell and Johns Hopkins and modelled Stanford after the system. On Oct. 1, 1891, Leland Stanford Junior University officially opened with an inaugural class of 555 students of both men and women, free of charge.