The Pittsburgh Building
The Rensselaer School was established in 1824 by Stephen Van Rensselaer “for the purpose of instructing persons … in the application of science to the common purposes of life” (Van Rensselaer to Blatchford, 1824). It is “…the first school of science and school of civil engineering, which has had a continuous existence, to be established in any English-speaking country” – Palmer C. Ricketts
In 1833 the school became the Rensselaer Institute, and in the 1850s its purpose was broadened to become a polytechnic institution. The name was changed to the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in 1861.
Online Institute Histories | Items digitized from the original publications held in Rensselaer’s Institute Archives and Special Collections department.
- 125 Years of Chemistry at RPI by Henry Van Klooster, 1949.
- Biographical Record of Officers and Graduates by Henry B. Nason, 1887.
- A Chapter in American Education by Ray Palmer Baker, 1924.
- Education for a Technological Society by Samuel Rezneck, 1968.
- History of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute by Palmer C. Ricketts, 1934.
- Photographic Reproductions of Work of Graduates 1931.
- The Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute by B.F. Greene, 1855.
- They Led the Way by Richard W. Schmelzer, 1980.
- Rensselaer: Where Imagination Achieves the Impossible by Thomas Phelan, D. Michael Ross and Carl Westerdahl, 1995.
- The Centennial Celebration of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, New York, October 3rd and 4th, 1924 ed. by Palmer C. Ricketts, 1925.