University Archives exhibit marks 150 years of the Morrow Plots
The show in Room 220 of the Main Library runs through October.
URBANA - The University of Illinois Archives has opened an exhibit marking the 150th anniversary of the Morrow Plots, the longest-running agricultural experiment in the United States and the second-longest in the world, the university said.
"These Plots Are Older Than We Are": Celebrating the 150th Anniversary of the Morrow Plots opened Oct. 2 in Room 220 of the Main Library and runs through October.
Among the items on display is the Morrow Plots Notebook, which records the crops, fertilizers, farming methods, soil conditions and yields in specific plots from 1876 to 1913. "The plots began as a scientific experiment in 1876 but became so much more over the next 150 years," said Bethany Anderson, the University Archives' natural and applied sciences archivist, who co-curated the exhibit.
Source: University of Illinois News Bureau, Oct. 2, 2026.