 In 1879, MU offered $500 cash and the Fitz telescope in exchange for a 7½ inch Munich-built equatorial refractor by Merz and Soehne from the failing Shelby College in Shelbyville, Kentucky.Shelby College agreed to the exchange, but MU found that it could not afford the transportation and reassembly of the Merz and Soehne telescope along with an adequate facility to house it.University President Samuel S. Laws stepped in and provided $2,000 of his own money to transport the telescope and begin construction of a new observatory.