The University of Nebraska is a public research university in the state of Nebraska in the United States. It is the state's oldest university and the largest in the University of Nebraska system. The university was chartered by the legislature in 1869 as a land-grant university under the 1862 Morrill Act, two years after Nebraska's statehood into the United States. Around the turn of the 20th century, the university began to expand significantly, hiring professors from eastern schools to teach in the newly organized professional colleges while also producing groundbreaking research in agricultural sciences. The University of Nebraska is composed of four campuses: the University of Nebraska?Lincoln, the University of Nebraska at Omaha, the University of Nebraska Medical Center, and the University of Nebraska at Kearney.