Ezra Cornell was a seemingly ordinary man who accomplished an extraordinary feat: He founded one of America's finest universities. Few would have expected such an accomplishment from the 21-year-old cotton mill mechanic who arrived in Ithaca in 1828. After all, Cornell had no formal education and worked as a carpenter.

How this common man went on to amass a fortune in the telegraph business and found Cornell is detailed in a Cornell University Library exhibition that opens March 8 in the Hirshland Gallery of Carl A. Kroch Library. "'I Would Found an Institution': The Ezra Cornell Bicentennial" celebrates Cornell's 200th birthday and his eponymous university.

It will feature letters, diaries and photographs from Ezra Cornell and the university's charter. The telegraph that received the world's very first telegraph message will be among its highlights as will be Cornell's safe and tools and a collection of rare shells from Hawaii that Cornell purchased to enhance the university's holdings.

The opening begins at 4:30 p.m. with a ceremonial cake cut by Cornell President David Skorton and the founder's great-great-great-grandson Ezra Cornell '71. The event is free and open to the public.

"The University Library houses a wealth of information on our founder," Skorton said. "I am delighted that Ezra Cornell's 200th birthday is giving us an opportunity to celebrate his singular contributions to American higher education while also highlighting the strength of the library's Rare and Manuscript Collections."

Cornell envisioned America as a place where technology, wealth and altruism could come together to benefit humankind, according to Elaine Engst, the director of the library's Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections and one of the exhibition's curators. Under Cornell's guidance and that of Andrew Dickson White, Cornell University was established as a nonsectarian institution, open to all and dedicated to all forms of intellectual endeavor.

"Ezra Cornell was an extraordinary man, entirely self-educated and self-made," Engst said. "With Andrew Dickson White, his remarkable ideals constituted a radical educational experiment for the 1860s, and led, in the small rural community of Ithaca, N.Y., to the realization of the first 'truly American university.'"

As part of the bicentennial celebration, Cornell Library will host a presentation, "Ezra Cornell and Any Person," by Carol Kammen, a senior lecturer in the university's history department and the historian of Tompkins County, N.Y., on March 28 at 4:30 p.m. in Kroch Library's lecture room. A reception will follow.

"There is a special place in our heart for Ezra Cornell, "said Interim University Librarian Anne R. Kenney. "He was a great book lover, and his very first philanthropic act was to fund the establishment of a public library in Ithaca. He also made sure that Willard Fiske, the first university librarian, had the resources to build the foundation for what has become one of the very best libraries in the world."

The exhibition will run until Aug. 31. For more information, call (607) 255-3530 and visit http://rmc.library.cornell.edu/Ezra.

Chris Philipp is a staff writer and editor for Library Communications.