Barnard Observatory

Frederick A. P. Barnard (1809-1889) was the third president and first chancellor of the University of Mississippi, serving from 1856 to 1861 after joining its faculty in 1854 as professor of mathematics, physics, civil engineering, and chemistry; earlier, he had joined the University of Alabama faculty in 1838 and started a Phi Beta Kappa chapter there. Committed to making the University of Mississippi a respectable academic institution, Barnard in 1858 urged its trustees to create a “Universitas Scientarium,” a university dedicated both to teaching students and to research across science, literature, agriculture, law, and medicine. Barnard Observatory was built in 1859 using slave labor to house what was intended to be the world’s largest refracting telescope, but the outbreak of the Civil War prevented the telescope from being delivered. Barnard also became embroiled in a major controversy over slavery after one of his slaves, Jane, was beaten and sexually assaulted by a student while Barnard was away from his campus residence in 1859; Jane reported the attack to Barnard’s wife, Margaret, and a professor corroborated her account by seeing the student leave the house. Barnard expelled the student and refused to readmit him, but the Mississippi legislature and the University board of trustees investigated whether the expulsion had relied on the testimony of a slave, which state law did not admit against a white person. Although the board exonerated Barnard and gave him a vote of confidence, the inquiry brought accusations that he was insufficiently proslavery, and he left the University in 1861. He later served as president of Columbia University from 1864 to 1889.

University, Mississippi · United States