Jane Stanford

Stanford University

Following their son's death, Jane and Leland Stanford sought ways to memorialize him. Before they left Europe in April 1884, with his remains, they changed their wills to give everything to a proposed institution at Palo Alto. In November 1885, they created foundational plans for the Leland Stanford Junior University, which opened on October 1, 1891. After her husband's death on June 21, 1893, Jane Stanford effectively took control of the university. The university struggled financially in this period and the trustees advocated a temporary closure of the university until tax and legal issues could be resolved. From 1893 to 1898, she collected $10,000 per month from the university, as its co-founder. The estate left probate in 1898. As the remaining founder, she wielded a great deal of legal control over the university until her death.

It was at Jane Stanford's direction that Stanford University gained an early focus on the arts. She also advocated for the admission of women; the university had been co-educational since its founding. She took a strong position on the issue of academic freedom when Stanford sought and ultimately succeeded in having Stanford University economist Edward A. Ross fired. Ross had made speeches favoring the Democrat William Jennings Bryan, had collectivist economic teachings, favored racism against Chinese American "coolies", and outlined eugenics policies directed against Chinese people and other racial groups.

Jane Stanford traveled to London in 1897, the year of Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee, in hopes of selling her rubies and other jewels to raise funds for the university, but was disappointed in the prices offered and returned home with most of her jewelry intact. In 1905, Stanford directed the university trustees to sell her jewels after her death and use the funds as a permanent endowment "to be used exclusively for the purchase of books and other publications". The board of trustees confirmed that arrangement, and the Jewel Fund continues to add to the university's library collections. The endowment, originally $500,000, is now worth about $20 million. Items purchased through the Jewel Fund display a distinctive bookplate that depicts a romanticized Jane Stanford offering her jewels to Athena, the Greek goddess of wisdom. Since 2007, benefactors who provide endowments for library acquisitions are referred to as members of the Jewel Society.