William Barton Rogers
William Barton Rogers | |
---|---|
President of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology | |
In office 1878–1881 | |
Preceded by | John Daniel Runkle |
Succeeded by | Francis Amasa Walker |
In office 1862–1870 | |
Preceded by | office established |
Succeeded by | John Daniel Runkle |
Personal details | |
Born | College of William and Mary | December 7, 1804
William Barton Rogers (December 7, 1804 – May 30, 1882) was an American geologist, physicist, and educator at the College of William & Mary from 1828 to 1835 and at the University of Virginia from 1835 to 1853. In 1861, Rogers founded the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.[1] The university opened in 1865 after the American Civil War. Because of his affiliation with Virginia, Mount Rogers, the highest peak in the state, is named after him.
Biography
Early life
Rogers was born on December 7, 1804, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He was the second son of Patrick Kerr Rogers and Hannah Blythe and was of Irish, Scottish, and English extraction. Patrick Rogers was born in
William Barton Rogers had three brothers: James Blythe Rogers (1802–1852), Henry Darwin Rogers (1808–1866), and Robert Empie Rogers (1813–1884). The Rogers brothers would each grow up to be distinguished scientists.[5]
Education and scientific career
William Barton Rogers was educated by his father Patrick Kerr Rogers and attended the public schools of
William Barton Rogers delivered a series of lectures on science before the
In 1833, his brother Henry had returned from England filled with enthusiasm for geology, and this had prompted Rogers to begin studies in the field. The practical value of his article on greensand caught the eye of the Virginia legislature. Rogers took this opportunity to lobby for a geological survey of Virginia, and he was called upon to organize it in 1835.[9] That same year, he and his brother Henry were elected members of the American Philosophical Society.[10]
By 1835, his brother Henry was state geologist of
Together, the brothers published a paper on "The Laws of Structure of the more Disturbed Zones of the Earth's Crust", in which the wave theory of mountain chains was first announced. This was followed later by William Rogers' statement of the law of distribution of
In 1842 the work of the survey closed.[4] State revenues had shrunk beginning in 1837, and the funding for the survey had been cut back. Meanwhile, Rogers had published six "Reports of the Geological Survey of the State of Virginia" (Richmond, 1836–40), though there were few copies, and recognition of their significance was slow to develop. They were later compiled by Jed Hotchkiss and issued in one volume with a map as Papers on the Geology of Virginia (New York, 1884).[9]
In 1835 Rogers also began serving as professor of "natural philosophy" at the
In 1853 he resigned from the University of Virginia, moving to Boston for two principal reasons. First, he wanted to increase his participation in scientific circles under the auspices of the Boston Society of Natural History and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, in whose proceedings and in the American Journal of Science his papers had been published while at UVa. Second, and more importantly, Rogers wanted to implement his innovative scheme for technical education (which could not be achieved within the structure and institutional focuses of UVa), in which he desired to have associated, on one side, scientific research and investigation on the largest scale and, on the other side, agencies for the popular diffusion of useful knowledge. This project continued to occupy his attention until it culminated in the chartering of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (1861), of which he became first president.[4]
To raise funds and public awareness of his new Institute, Rogers delivered a course of lectures before the Lowell Institute on "The Application of Science to the Arts" in 1862.
In 1861, he was appointed inspector of gas and gas meters for the state of Massachusetts,[4] a post he accepted reluctantly. During his service, he improved the standards of measurement.[6]
MIT Presidency
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For more detail, see History of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
An act of the
He died after collapsing during a speech at MIT's 1882 commencement exercises.[14] According to legend his last words were "bituminous coal":[15]
He fell to the platform – instantly dead. All his life he had borne himself most faithfully and heroically, and he died as so good a knight would surely have wished, in harness, at his post, and in the very part and act of public duty.[16]
Other affiliations
Rogers was chairman of the
Works
Besides numerous papers on geology, chemistry, and physics, contributed to the proceedings of societies and technical journals, he was the author of:[4]
- Strength of Materials (Charlottesville, 1838)
- Elements of Mechanical Philosophy (Boston, 1852)
- Papers on the Geology of Virginia (New York, 1884)
References
- ^ Rogers, William B., Chairman, The Committee of Associated Institutions of Science and Arts, "Objects and Plan of an Institute of Technology: including a Society of Arts, a Museum of Arts, and a School of Industrial Science; proposed to be established in Boston" Archived 2010-06-12 at the Wayback Machine - Boston, 1861, and archived at the MIT Libraries Collection.
- ^ Walker, Francis A. (April 1887). "Memoir of William Barton Rogers" (PDF). National Academy. Retrieved 2022-01-27.
- New International Encyclopedia(1st ed.). New York: Dodd, Mead.
- ^ a b c d e f g h One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Wilson, J. G.; Fiske, J., eds. (1900). . Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography. New York: D. Appleton.
- ^ Elizabeth Andrews, Nora Murphy, and Tom Rosko, "William Barton Rogers: MIT's Visionary Founder Archived 2008-05-12 at the Wayback Machine," 2004.
- ^ a b c d Merrill, George P. (1935). "Rogers, William Barton". Dictionary of American Biography. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons.
- ^ a b "Collection: William Barton Rogers papers | MIT ArchivesSpace". MIT Libraries ArchiveSpace. Retrieved 2023-01-09.
- ^ "William Barton Rogers, 1804-1882 | MIT History". Retrieved 2023-01-09.
- ^ . (subscription required)
- ^ "APS Member History". search.amphilsoc.org. Retrieved 2021-04-08.
- ^ a b Rines, George Edwin, ed. (1920). Encyclopedia Americana. .
- ^ "No honorary degrees is an MIT tradition going back to ... Thomas Jefferson". MIT News Office. 2001-06-08. Retrieved 2006-05-07.:"MIT's founder, William Barton Rogers, regarded the practice of giving honorary degrees as 'literary almsgiving ... of spurious merit and noisy popularity ... ' Rogers was a geologist from the University of Virginia who believed in Thomas Jefferson's policy barring honorary degrees at the university, which was founded in 1819."
- ^ Peter Dizikes (2018-02-12). "MIT class reveals, explores Institute's connections to slavery". MIT News Office. Retrieved 2018-02-12.
- ^ Scientific American. Munn & Company. 1882-06-24. p. 393.
- ^ "About | "Bituminous Coal"".
- ^ Phillips, Henry Ayling (1915). George Ward Blodgett, Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering. Cambridge: Riverside Press. pp. 27–30.
Further reading
- Angulo A.J. (2009.) William Barton Rogers and the Idea of MIT. Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore, MD.
- W. S. W. Ruschenberger, "A Sketch of the Life of Robert E. Rogers, with Biographical Notices of His Father and Brothers," in Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society, v. XXIII (1886).
- Emma Barton (with William T. Sidgwick), ed., Life and Letters of William Barton Rogers (Boston, 1897)
- Technology Review, v. 60 (1958), pp. 105–8, 124–30.
- R. R. Shrock, Geology at M.I.T. 1865-1965, vol. 1: The Faculty and Supporting Staff, 1977.
External links
- Official mini-biography
- Life and Letters of William Barton Rogers Archived 2018-10-03 at the Wayback Machine
- Popular Science Monthly. Vol. 9. September 1876. pp. 606–611.
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- William Barton Rogers — Biographical Memoirs of the National Academy of Sciences
- Scientific American. 24-June-1882, pp. 393, Obituary Prof. Wm. B. Rogers