Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University was founded in 1872 as a land-grant college specializing in agriculture and mechanics. The land-grant college system marked the beginning of scientific agricultural and industrial instruction in the Commonwealth. Over the next century Virginia Tech became nationally recognized as a comprehensive research university with a broad range of scientific, technological, business, and liberal arts instruction. The 3,000-acre main campus includes the site of Drapers Meadow where settlers were killed and captured on 8 July 1755 by Ohio-based Shawnee Indians at the beginning of the French and Indian War.