Q 01/05

Stanford was founded in memory of Leland Jr., who died of what disease just before his 16th birthday?

A) Scarlet fever

B) Typhoid fever

C) Tuberculosis

D) Diphtheria

Answer · why

B) Typhoid fever

He fell ill on a family tour of Europe and died in Florence in 1884; his parents decided their fortune would build a university instead.

Q 02/05

Besides running a railroad and serving as a state governor, Leland Stanford held which national office?

A) US Senator

B) Secretary of the Treasury

C) Ambassador to Britain

D) Postmaster General

Answer · why

A) US Senator

He was one of the Big Four behind the Central Pacific and drove the ceremonial golden spike at Promontory Summit in 1869.

Q 03/05

After their son's death, Leland Stanford told his wife that whose children 'shall be our children'?

A) California's

B) America's

C) The railroad workers'

D) The world's

Answer · why

A) California's

The founding grant followed in November 1885, and for its first three decades the university charged no tuition at all.

Q 04/05

Stanford's campus is nicknamed 'the Farm' because it was built on what?

A) The Stanfords' horse-breeding estate

B) A former dairy cooperative

C) The state agricultural college

D) Olmsted's model farm

Answer · why

A) The Stanfords' horse-breeding estate

The Palo Alto Stock Farm bred trotting horses; Leland Stanford's photographic study of a galloping horse there helped give birth to motion pictures.

Q 05/05

The cornerstone was laid on 14 May 1887, a date chosen because it was what?

A) Leland Jr.'s birthday

B) The Stanfords' wedding anniversary

C) California's admission day

D) Jane Stanford's birthday

Answer · why

A) Leland Jr.'s birthday

He would have turned nineteen; the university opened four and a half years later.