| The Sheffield Scientific School, originally known as the Yale Scientific School, played an important role in the evolution of American higher learning from the classical model of education to one encompassing the study of science and the liberal arts. At a time when the established pattern of education was focused on the study of Greek and Latin, theology and philosophy, Sheffield was one of the first schools to devote its curriculum to "the promotion of the study of the natural, physical, and mathematical sciences." |
| 1846 | Yale establishes professorships of agricultural chemistry and practical (applied) chemistry for the purpose of giving instruction to graduates and others not members of the undergraduate classes |
| 1847 | A school of Applied Chemistry is embraced within the newly created Department of Philosophy and the Arts |
| 1852 | Professorship of Civil Engineering established and the Yale School of Engineering is organized under William A. Norton
Authorization of the Bachelor of Philosophy degree |
| 1853-54 | Science and engineering courses are independent, but classed together in the catalog under "the aegis of a nonexistent institution" -- the Yale Scientific School |
| 1856 | "Proposed plan for a complete organization of the School of Science” and “Appeal in Behalf of the Yale Scientific School": fundraising pamphlets issued |
| 1858 | Joseph E. Sheffield donates funds and property on the northeast corner of Grove and Prospect Streets to the Scientific School |
| 1860 | Degree of Doctor of Philosophy established |
| 1861 | Yale Scientific School becomes the Sheffield Scientific School in recognition of the generosity of Joseph E. Sheffield |
| 1866 | "Public lectures to Mechanics" instituted, later known as the "Sheffield Lectures" |
| 1870-73 | Four Yale Scientific Expeditions organized by Professor Othniel Marsh in search of fossils |
| 1872-98 | George Jarvis Brush, Director of the Sheffield Scientific School |
| 1898-1922 | Russell Henry Chittenden, Director of the Sheffield Scientific School |
| 1913 | Land purchased in East Lyme for a field engineering camp |
| 1918-19 | General reorganization of the educational structure of Yale University. Three year
"Select" course at the Sheffield Scientific School eliminated. A four-year course of study
"for students who wished to undertake the professional study of science and
engineering" established
Graduate courses are transferred to the Graduate School |
| 1919-45 | Only undergraduate courses taught at the Sheffield Scientific School |
| 1922 | First award of the degree of Bachelor of Science to the graduating class of the Sheffield Scientific School |
| 1922-45 | Charles Hyde Warren, Dean of the Sheffield Scientific School |
| 1932-62 | The School of Engineering reestablished. Sheffield Scientific School engineering classes transferred to the new school |
| 1945 | The Sheffield Scientific School resumes its original function of graduate level instruction in science. Undergraduate courses for the Bachelor of Science degree are transferred to Yale College. Undergraduate courses for a Bachelor of Science in industrial administration transferred to the School of Engineering |
| 1945-56 | Edmund Ware Sinnott, Director of the Sheffield Scientific School |
| 1947 | Centennial celebration |
| 1956 | The Sheffield Scientific School terminated as an active school in 1956 although the Board of Trustees still exists to oversee the Sheffield Scientific School property and meet legal requirements. Faculty is defined as teachers of science to graduate students under the Division of Science. |
The Value of ScienceIn the United States during the first half of the nineteenth century, higher education was centered around classical studies, and science, so far as it was understood, was considered of relatively little importance or educational value. Gradually the climate began to change with the interest created by innovations such as Morse's electric telegraph of 1832. At Yale College, a deep-seated aversion to changes in the curriculum prevailed for many years. In the late 1860s, the Governing Board of the Sheffield Scientific School lamented: "A year does not pass without our seeing that the work which we are trying to perform is quite imperfectly understood by the graduates and friends of Yale College, by many writers on the higher education, and by parents and teachers who are called upon to select for young men their advanced courses of study." However, by the 1880s Yale College began introducing chemistry, physics, biology and geology into its own curriculum, duplicating part of what was being done at Sheff. (R. Chittenden) Two Separate Countries on the Same PlanetPrior to 1919, the Yale College and Sheffield Scientific School programs were very much separate, fostering a rivalry between "Ac" students of the Academic Department and "Sheff" students. Ac students, with their long standing traditions, tended to look down on the Sheff students as too practically oriented. Similar differences extended to the faculties, where the condescending attitudes of the academic faculty toward Sheff's alleged vocational training prompted the Sheff faculty to actively justify and promote its educational program. Loomis Havemeyer 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." (W. J. Cunningham) The Sheffield LecturesIn 1866 a course of public lectures was initiated intended primarily for the local community. Even with a charge of one dollar, the program proved so popular that audiences of several hundred attended these evening lectures with great regularity. At first the lectures were entitled "Public Lectures to Mechanics" and consisted mainly in a presentation of scientific facts and principles that might prove interesting to inquiring minds. Later, the course came to be known as the "Sheffield Lectures," and while the general character remained the same, the tendency was to appeal to a more highly cultivated audience. In a time before the widespread dissemination of scientific news in popular magazines, this annual course of lectures engaged city residents in the discussion of scientific topics. (R. Chittenden) (provided by Andy Shimp, Engineering & Applied Science Librarian, October, 1999. Web design by Martin Ewing.) |
Edited: 25-Mar-2003
Copyright © 1999 Yale University