Growth of the College

The developments thus far discussed bring us up only to 1890, twenty years after the beginning of instruction in the College. Those in charge of the five departments then existing had been compelled to develop their curricula and methods with few, if any, precedents to guide them; and in the face of obstacles which it is difficult for us now to conceive -- especially during the second decade, when the income from the endowment decreased and the other income failed to keep pace with the increasing enrollment and commitments. The number of engineering students at the middle of this period constituted about one-quarter, and in 1890 almost one-half, of the total number enrolled in the University. From then on this proportion has decreased as the University expanded and new colleges were established.

The developments of the next forty-eight years (1890-1938) are so numerous and the number of persons involved is so great that it is impossible, within the available space, to do more than to mention briefly a few of the principal new undertakings of the College. Soon after 1890 the State's appropriations began to be increased; and, in general, they have continued to increase. For the whole University these five decades are characterized by the establishment of new colleges and schools, with a corresponding increase in the variety of courses of instruction and research. The University enrollment has increased from 469 in 1890 to 12,928 in March of the current year [1938].

In the College of Engineering the number of departments has increased from the five thus far cited to nine, which, with the dates of their establishment, are as follows:

Ceramic Engineering, 1915
Civil Engineering, 1867
Electrical Engineering, 1890
General Engineering Drawing, 1921
Mechanical Engineering, 1867
Mining and Metallurgical Engineering, re-established 1909
Physics, 1890
Railway Engineering, 1906
Theoretical and Applied Mechanics, 1890

The department of Architecture, authorized in 1867, remained in the College of Engineering until 1931 when it was removed and incorporated in the then newly-established College of Fine and Applied Arts. The Department of Municipal and Sanitary Engineering, organized within this period has now been merged in the Civil Engineering Department and the curriculum there administered as an option. With the organization in 1892 of the University Graduate School, graduate work in engineering, as in the other colleges, received a great impetus; and is now offered in all but one of the nine engineering departments.

Of the buildings now in use by the College, five had been built by 1900, namely, Electrical Engineering Laboratory and Annex, Engineering Hall, Machine Laboratory, and Mechanical Engineering Laboratory. Those added since that date are: Ceramic Engineering Building and Laboratory, Locomotive Laboratory, Materials Testing Laboratory, Mining and Metallurgical Laboratory, Physics Laboratory, Transportation Building, and the Woodshop and Foundry. The most extensive recent addition to the physical equipment of the College is the Materials Testing Laboratory, which is now being renamed in honor of Professor Talbot.

The College's Departments -- The Engineering Experiment Station
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