Artist: Robert Wadsworth Grafton (1876–1936)
Edgar Albert Burnett
BURNETT, EDGAR ALBERT (1865–1941), inducted 1930
Born in Hartland, Michigan, Edgar Burnett received a bachelor’s degree in 1887 from Michigan State Agricultural College and served as an assistant to the faculty there, before becoming professor of animal husbandry at (South) Dakota Agricultural College. There, he implemented the agricultural experiment station and conducted swine research. In 1899, he left for the University of Nebraska, becoming Associate Dean of Agriculture and director of the experiment station in 1901. Burnett expanded the agricultural curriculum and the state’s experiment stations. He was appointed Dean of Agriculture in 1909. He was bestowed an honorary doctorate by his alma mater in 1917. Dean Burnett spent two years in the American Education Corps, planning agricultural lectures in France, and in 1925, he was named president of the American Association of Land-Grant Colleges. During the final decade of his career, Edgar A. Burnett was Chancellor of the University of Nebraska, retiring in 1938. Robert Grafton was the artist of record for the original Burnett portrait as well as the post-fire replacement made a few years later.
Source: Saddle & Sirloin Guidebook 2026, p. 58