Princess Anne Academy was established on September 13, 1886, to provide higher education for African Americans on the lower Eastern Shore. The Centenary Biblical Institute, later Morgan State College, and the Delaware Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church were instrumental in its founding and administered the institution into the early 20th century. The State of Maryland assumed control of the academy in 1919, renaming it the Eastern Shore Branch of Maryland Agricultural College. In 1926 it passed into complete ownership of the State and was known as Princess Anne College. In 1948 it became Maryland State College, a division of the University of Maryland. It was designated University of Maryland Eastern Shore in 1970.