Sheffield Scientific School was founded in 1847 as a school of Yale College in New Haven, Connecticut, for instruction in science and engineering. Originally named the Yale Scientific School, it was renamed in 1861 in honor of Joseph E. Sheffield, a railroad executive. The school was incorporated in 1871. The Sheffield Scientific School helped establish the model for the transition of U.S. higher education from a classical model to one which incorporated both the sciences and the liberal arts. Following World War I, however, its curriculum gradually became completely integrated with Yale College. "The Sheff" ceased to function as a separate entity in 1956.
After technological developments in the early nineteenth century, such as the electric telegraph, an interest was fostered in teaching applied science at universities. Harvard established the Lawrence Scientific School in 1846 and Dartmouth began the Chandler Scientific School in 1852. The stage was set at Yale for the transition in education beginning in 1846, when professorships of agricultural chemistry (John Pitkin Norton) and practical chemistry (Benjamin Silliman Jr.) were established. In 1847, the School of Applied Chemistry became part of a newly created Department of Philosophy and the Arts (later, the Yale Graduate School). Classes and labs were hosted in the Second President's House on Yale's Old Campus until funding and a suitable facility could be found.[1]
Norton died in 1852 and was replaced by John Addison Porter. Applied chemistry was followed in 1852 by a professorship of civil engineering (William Augustus Norton) establishing a school of engineering. These programs made up the Yale Scientific School.
In 1853 and 1854, science and engineering courses were listed in the Yale College course catalog as offered by the Yale Scientific School. Porter elicited help from his father-in-law, Joseph Earl Sheffield, and in 1858, Sheffield donated over US$100,000 to purchase the old Medical Department building for the scientific school. This gift included two newly-renovated wings within the building.[2]:8 The old Yale Medical School building on the northeast corner of Grove and Prospect Streets was renovated and renamed (South) Sheffield Hall. (It was demolished in 1931 and was on the current site of Sterling Tower, Sheffield Hall and Strathcona Hall (SSS).) Sheffield's building reinforced the division of Hillhouse Avenue into an upper, residential section, and a lower section devoted to education. In 1861, the school became the Sheffield Scientific School in recognition of his generosity devoted to "the promotion of the study of the natural, physical, and mathematical sciences."
Sheffield was one of Yale's greatest benefactors and continued to support the school throughout his life, giving a total of about US$500,000. Yale also received US$591,000 from his will as well as his house, the Sheffield mansion, designed and originally owned by Ithiel Town (demolished in 1957).[3] The school also benefited from the Morrill Act starting in 1863 and an agricultural course was begun. Land grant status, however, was transferred to the Storrs Agricultural School in 1893 after arguments by the state grange that the school was not a proper "farm school".[4]
A series of lectures, later known as the Sheffield Lectures was instituted by the school in 1866. Professor Othniel Charles Marsh of the school led four Yale scientific expeditions in search of fossils in 1870-3.
Education and student life
The Sheffield School innovated with an undergraduate course offering science and mathematics as well as economics, English, geography, history, modern languages, philology and political science. Sheffield also pioneered graduate education in the United States, granting the first Ph.D. in the United States in 1861 as well as the first engineering Ph.D. to Josiah Willard Gibbs in 1863, and the first geology Ph.D. to William North Rice in 1867.
Unlike Yale College students at the time, Sheffield students had "no dorms, no required chapel, no disciplinary marks and no proctors".[5] The Academical Department of Yale (Ac) and Sheffield (Sheff) became rivals. Loomis Havemeyer, alumnus and registrar at Sheffield, stated: "During the second half of the nineteenth century Yale College and Sheffield Scientific School, separated by only a few streets, were two separate countries on the same planet." The Ac students studied liberal arts and would look down on the practical Sheff students.
Sheffield had its own student secret societies (aka final clubs or senior societies, some also known by their Greek letters) including the Colony Club, 1848 (now Berzelius), the Cloister, 1863 (now Book and Snake), St. Anthony Hall, 1867 (now a 3-year society, also called Delta Psi), St. Elmo, 1889 (also a senior society), as well as Franklin Hall, 1865 (Theta Xi), York Hall, 1877 (Chi Phi), Sachem Hall, 1893 (Phi Sigma Kappa), and Vernon Hall, 1908 (now Myth and Sword). The Yale Scientific Magazine was founded at Sheffield in 1894, the first student magazine devoted to the sciences.
Other buildings
In 1872–73, Sheffield Scientific School's first new building, North Sheffield Hall was built, designed by Josiah Cleaveland Cady, on what had been the gardens of the Town-Sheffield mansion. This was followed by Winchester Hall (1892) and Sheffield Chemical (1894-5, J. Cleaveland Cady). Of these, only the latter, Sheffield Chemical, is still standing, renovated and renamed Arthur K. Watson Hall. Becton Laboratory (designed by Marcel Breuer, 1970) now stands on the site of North Sheffield and Winchester Halls (demolished in 1967). Further expansion brought Kirtland Hall (1902, Kirtland Cutter), Hammond Laboratory (1904, W. Gedney Beatty), Leet Oliver Hall (1908, Charles C. Haight), Mason Laboratory (1911, Charles C. Haight) and Dunham Laboratory (1912, Henry Morse; addition 1958, Douglas Orr), all still standing except Hammond which was razed in 2009 to make way for two new residential colleges.[6]
The Vanderbilt-Sheffield Dormitories and Towers were built by Charles C. Haight from 1903 to 1906, and Haight's chapter house St. Anthony Hall was built in 1913. Byers Hall, designed by Hiss and Weekes and built in 1903, served as a center for social and religious life. These buildings are now incorporated into Silliman College, and St. Anthony Hall still owns its building, which completes the College and Wall Street corner of the Silliman College Quadrangle. In 2006-7, Silliman underwent a major renovation.
Also, in 1913, land in East Lyme was purchased for a field engineering camp (now the Yale Outdoor Education Center).
Reorganization
During the 1918-1919 reorganization of the educational structure of Yale University, the three years "select" course at Sheffield Scientific School was eliminated and a four-year course of study for those studying "professional science" and "engineering" was approved, while graduate courses were transferred to the Graduate School, leaving only undergraduate courses taught at Sheffield Scientific School from 1919 to 1945, coexisting with Yale College's science programs. The centennial was celebrated in 1947 with the Silliman lectures given by Ernest O. Lawrence, Linus Pauling, W. M. Stanley and George Wells Beadle.[7]
The first degree of Bachelor of Science was awarded in 1922 to the graduating class of the Sheffield Scientific School. In 1932, the School of Engineering was reestablished and Sheffield Scientific School engineering classes were transferred to the new school. In 1945, the Sheffield Scientific School resumed its original function of graduate level instruction in science. Undergraduate courses for the Bachelor of Science degree were transferred to Yale College, and undergraduate courses for a Bachelor of Science in industrial administration were transferred to the School of Engineering.
This transition occurred gradually, through the influence of "aggressive, powerful alumni" (including Edwin Oviatt, editor of the Yale Alumni Weekly) who "took control out of President Hadley's hands and forced a radical reorganization of Yale".[5] In 1956, the Sheffield Scientific School was terminated as an active school. The Board of Trustees still exists to oversee the Sheffield Scientific School property and meet legal requirements. The school's faculty is defined as teachers of science to graduate students under the Division of Science. Engineering teaching and research is now conducted within the School of Engineering & Applied Science.
Directors
George Jarvis Brush (Professor of Mineralogy) was Director of the Sheffield Scientific School from 1872 to 1898.
Russell Henry Chittenden (Professor of Physiological Chemistry) was Director of the Sheffield Scientific School from 1898 to 1922.
John Hays Hammond, mining engineer, philanthropist, faculty member. He endowed a program at Sheff in mining and metallurgy and accepted a professorship. He contributed $100,000 for the construction of Hammond Laboratory, which is named for him.[50]
Yale College is the undergraduate college of Yale University. Founded in 1701, it is the original school of the university. Although other Yale schools were founded as early as 1810, all of Yale was officially known as Yale College until 1887, when its schools were confederated and the institution was renamed Yale University.
Daniel Coit Gilman was an American educator and academic. Gilman was instrumental in founding the Sheffield Scientific School at Yale College, and subsequently served as the second president of the University of California, Berkeley, as the first president of Johns Hopkins University, and as founding president of the Carnegie Institution.
The Yale School of Medicine is the graduate medical school at Yale University, a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. It was founded in 1810 as the Medical Institution of Yale College and formally opened in 1813.
Charles Benjamin Dudley was an American chemist who was an early proponent of standardisation in industry.
Book and Snake or The Society ofBook and Snake is a secret society for seniors at Yale University. It was established in 1863 and is the fourth-oldest secret society at Yale.
Silliman College is a residential college at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut, named for scientist and Yale professor Benjamin Silliman. It opened in September 1940 as the last of the original ten residential colleges, and contains buildings constructed as early as 1901.
William Henry Brewer was an American botanist. He worked on the first California Geological Survey and was the first Chair of Agriculture at Yale University's Sheffield Scientific School.
The Yale Record is the campus humor magazine of Yale University. Founded in 1872, it is the oldest humor magazine in the United States.
George Jarvis Brush was an American mineralogist and academic administrator who spent most of his career at Yale University in the Sheffield Scientific School.
John Pitkin Norton was an educator, agricultural chemist, and author.
The Yale School of Engineering & Applied Science is the engineering school of Yale University. When the first professor of civil engineering was hired in 1852, a Yale School of Engineering was established within the Yale Scientific School, and in 1932 the engineering faculty organized as a separate, constituent school of the university. The school currently offers undergraduate and graduate classes and degrees in electrical engineering, chemical engineering, computer science, applied physics, environmental engineering, biomedical engineering, and mechanical engineering and materials science.
The Yale Scientific Magazine (YSM) is a scientific magazine published quarterly by undergraduate students from Yale University. It was founded at the Sheffield Scientific School of Yale in 1894. Before 1927, it was originally called Yale Scientific Monthly or Yale Sheffield Monthly. As the first student magazine devoted to the sciences, it is the oldest collegiate science quarterly in the United States.
William Charles Wurtenburg was an American college football player and coach. Born and raised in Western New York to German parents, Wurtenburg attended the prestigious Phillips Exeter Academy, where he played football. He enrolled in classes at Yale University in 1886 and soon earned a spot on the school's football team. He played for Yale from 1886 through 1889, and again in 1891; two of those teams were later recognized as national champions. His 35-yard run in a close game in 1887 against rival Harvard earned him some fame. Wurtenburg received his medical degree from Yale's Sheffield Scientific School in 1893.
Samuel Holden Parsons Hall was an American merchant and politician from New York.
Science Hill is an area of the Yale University campus primarily devoted to physical and biological sciences. It is located in the Prospect Hill neighborhood of New Haven, Connecticut.
John Arthur Hall was an American football player and coach. He played college football for the Yale Bulldogs football team and was selected as a consensus honoree on the 1897 College Football All-America Team. He also served as the head coach of the Carlisle Indians football team in 1898. Hall also played ice hockey on intercollegiate and amateur levels for Yale University and teams in New York City and Pittsburgh.
William Petit Trowbridge was a mechanical engineer, military officer, and naturalist. He was one of the first mechanical engineers on the faculties of the University of Michigan, the Sheffield Scientific School of Yale, and the Columbia School of Mines. He had a brief military career after graduating from West Point and later served as Adjutant General for the State of Connecticut from 1873 to 1876. During his career as a surveyor on the American Pacific coast he collected thousands of animal specimens, several of which now bear his name.
Benjamin Douglas Silliman was an American lawyer and politician from New York.
William Crosby Marshall was an American mechanical and consulting engineer, Professor of Machine Design and Descriptive Geometry at the Sheffield Scientific School of Yale University and author.
References
↑ Pinnell, Patrick (1999). Yale University: The Campus Guide. Princeton Architectural Press. p.18.
1 2 3 4 Dingus, Lowell (2018). King of the Dinosaur Hunters: the life of John Bell Hatcher and the discoveries that shaped paleontology. Pegasus Books. ISBN9781681778655.
↑ Loomis Havemeyer, Samuel Dudley, The Engineering Heritage at Yale, 1852-1957, 1959.
↑ Jenkins, E. H. (1911). "William Henry Brewer". Obituary Record of Graduates of Yale University Deceased During the Year Ending June 1, 1911 (pdf). 7 (9): 130–3. Bibcode:1911AmJS...31...71J. doi:10.2475/ajs.s4-31.181.71.
↑ "Daniel Coit Gilman". Obituary Record of Graduates of Yale University Deceased During the Academical Year Ending in June, 1909 (68): 1012–7. 1909.
↑ "Thomas Raynesford Lounsbury". Obituary Record of Graduates of Yale University: 749–752. 1915.
↑ "Benjamin Silliman"(PDF). Obituary Record of Graduates of Yale University Deceased During the Academical Year Ending in June, 1885 (44): 245–6. 1885.
↑ Dunbar, Charles F. (July 1897), "The Career of Francis Amasa Walker", The Quarterly Journal of Economics, Oxford University Press, 11 (4): 436–448, doi:10.2307/1880719, JSTOR1880719
↑ Carpenter, Kenneth J (September 1994). "The Life and Times of W.O. Atwater". The Journal of Nutrition. The 1993 W.O. Atwater Centennial Memorial Lecture. Berkeley, California: Department of Nutritional Sciences, University of California, Berkeley.
↑ True, A. C. (1908). "Wilbur Olin Atwater. 1844–1907". Proceedings of the Washington Academy of Sciences. 10: 194–198. ISSN0363-1095. JSTOR24525334.
↑ "Clifford Whittingham Beers". Obituary Record of Graduates of Yale University Deceased During the Year Ending July 1, 1944 (103): 231–2. 1944.
↑ "Bradford Brinton". Obituary Record of Graduates of Yale University Deceased During the Year Ending July 1, 1936 (95): 165–6. 1936.
↑ "BROOKS, Joshua Twing", Biographical Directory of the United States Congress 1774 - Present, retrieved 11 February 2018
↑ Malcolm G. Chace, 80, Industrial Leader, Dies, Providence, RI, The Providence Sunday Journal, 17 July 1955, p.24{{citation}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
↑ "MALCOLM CHACE, FINANCIER, DIES". The New York Times. 17 July 1955. p.61. Retrieved 28 October 2019. "credited with being the father of hockey in the United States
↑ "[Henry] Boardman Conover"(PDF). Obituary Record of Graduates of Yale University Deceased During the Year 1949-1950 (105): 185. 1950.
↑ "Arthur Louis Day"(PDF). The National Academies Press. Retrieved March 31, 2014.
↑ "James Terry Gardiner Dies"(PDF). The New York Times. New York, New York. 11 September 1912. Retrieved 24 January 2016.
↑ "Josiah Willard Gibbs". Obituary Record of Graduates of Yale University (pdf). 62: 236–3. 1903.
↑ T. Keith Glennan, National Aeronautics and Space Administration, retrieved 11 February 2018
↑ "Harold Levenworth Green, Ph.B. 1912"(PDF). Obituary Record of Graduates of Yale University Deceased During the Year Ending July 1, 1951 (110): 128. 1951.
↑ "John Campbell Greenway, Ph.B. 1895"(PDF). Obituary Record of Graduates of Yale University Deceased During the Year Ending July 1, 1926 (85): 244–6. 1926.
↑ "John Hays Hammond, Ph.B. 1876"(PDF). Obituary Record of Graduates of Yale University Deceased During the Year Ending July 1, 1936 (95): 129–30. 1936.
↑ "William Thompson Sedgwick"(PDF). Obituary Record of Graduates of Yale University Deceased During the Year Ending July 1, 1921 (22): 203–6. 1921.
↑ "G.A.[sic] Selden, Who Put Auto Engine in Motion, Dead". Democrat and Chronicle. Rochester, New York. 18 January 1922. p.17. He obtained his early education in the Clarkson school and the Sheffield Scientific School of Yale University
Warren, Charles H. The Sheffield Scientific School from 1847 to 1947. In The Centennial of the Sheffield Scientific School. Edited by George Alfred Baitsell. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1950.
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