Although Central University consolidated with Centre College at Danville in 1901 and ceased to exist in Richmond, several of her influential graduates from Madison County desired to continue higher education activities at Richmond. They vigorously pushed for the Kentucky General Assembly's passage of the Normal School enabling legislation in 1906. These citizens also were directly instrumental in Richmond and the physical plant of Central University being selected as the site for one of the recently approved state normal schools. Therefore, Eastern Kentucky University's heritage can rightfully be traced back to 1873 and the establishment of Central University.

Eastern Professor of History Jonathan Truman Dorris devoted considerable time to locating any information he could secure on Central University while researching and writing the history of Eastern. In 1934 he published an article in the Register of the Kentucky Historical Society on the history of old Central. Dorris collected numerous documents on Central University through the years and donated many of them to the Crabbe Library. He also had permission from Centre College officials to copy the minutes from the Board of Curators of Central University.

Interest in Central University's history was revived again in 1974 when Eastern celebrated the centennial year of higher education in Richmond. By 1977 the newly created University Archives began gathering documents on Central University. The Archives copied all existing Central University records in the Crabbe Library and received donations of several previously unknown University publications. In 1979 the Archivist contacted Centre College librarian, Mr. John May, and inspected their archives files for documents on Central University. Unfortunately, the archives was not organized, but the Archivist uncovered a number of documents that were not in Eastern's archives. Permission was granted to copy those records. Several years later Centre received a grant from the National Historical Publications and Records Commission to process and catalog all of its archival records. Mr. John Le Doux, project archivist, processed the archives and graciously permitted Eastern to photocopy or microfilm any newly uncovered Central University materials.

The information on the University's official history can be gleaned from a fine set of publications - the catalogs and yearbooks. However, the records from the office of the chief executive officer, the Chancellor, are very incomplete. Hardly any documents from Chancellor Breck's administration have survived, and only the latter years of Chancellor Blanton's tenure are adequately documented, especially the Robb cheating controversy case.

Note: This collection was reprocessed and combined with material from the Townsend Collection.