1905—School of Mines building on the Morningside campus is completed. The School expands from the Engineering Building (now known as Mathematics) which had been its primary home since 1897. In 1961, when the School moves to the new Mudd Building and General Studies moves in, the Mines Building is renamed Lewisohn Hall after Adolph Lewisohn, who helped fund the building's construction. Shown in 1908; in the upper right photo it is in the center with Earl Hall to the right.
Class of 1905.
Sightseeing in New York City in 1905.
New York City docks in 1905.
1905—Coney Island’s Luna Park.
1907-1908 curriculum for mining engineering.
1907—West end of the Mechanical Engineering Testing Lab. 150,000 lb Emery testing machine in the rear, delivered in 1889. Torsion machine and 60,000 lb machine in the foreground.
1907—Morningside campus views, showing: The Engineering (now Mathematics) and Mines (now Lewisohn) Buildings; the south court from the east, with the Faculty Club (left), School of Mines (center), and Low Library (right, near view).
1907—East end of the Mechanical Engineering Testing Lab. 400,000 lb machine on the left. 50,000 and 100,000 lb machines on the right.
Registration with each faculty at Columbia during the 1907-1908 academic year.
1907—Portion of the Alternating Current Laboratory in Electrical Engineering.
1900-1908—Number of degrees and diplomas granted.
Views of the construction of the Manhattan Bridge. 1908—the foundation (left). 1908—the first tower (top right). 1909—view from Brooklyn (bottom right).
1908—The Lower East Side.
1908—Students form the Wireless Telegraph Club of Columbia University, later called the Columbia University Amateur Radio Club. This is the earliest recorded formation of an amateur radio club. The photo of the Radio Club is from the 1963 Columbia Engineer yearbook.
In 1909 electric lighting was slowly making its way into residences. Only three out of every ten homes in New York City had electricity. Shown: 1909 advertisement for home electricity highlights the benefits of adopting electric light.
1910—Penn Station opens. It was designed by McKim, Mead & White, the same architectural firm that designed the Morningside Heights campus. In 1963 it was demolished and replaced by an underground Penn Station. Shown: 1908—the hole during construction. 1911—the Seventh Avenue façade.
1910—Vaudeville at Union Square.
1910—Times Building (left); 1911—Times Square at night (center); 1914—Times Square, with the Times Building (right).
Engineering School news, December 7, 1911 Spectator.
1911—Rush hour on the Queensborough Bridge.
1911—For his PhD thesis, David Steinman devises the steel truss arch design later to be used for the Henry Hudson Bridge (which opens in 1936, left), to start a renowned career in building bridges, including the Mackinac Bridge in Michigan (which opens in 1957, center and right).
May 23, 1911—Dedication of the New York Public Library main branch at Fifth Avenue at 42nd Street (top right from 1914). The Croton Reservoir, a popular strolling spot, was torn down in 1899 to make room for the library (bottom right photo from c. 1897).
Ads in Spectator, December 4, 1911, reflecting student life.
1912—The Polo Grounds: right field (left) and during the World Series (right). The first version was built in 1876 for playing polo. It was bounded by 110th and 112th Streets and Fifth and Sixth Avenues. The field was used at times by the baseball New York Giants, Yankees, and Mets and by the football New York Giants and Jets. It was best known as the long-time homes of the two Giants teams. The last sporting event was the football game between the New York Jets and the Buffalo Bills on December 14, 1963.
1912—Columbia junior Edwin H. Armstrong invents the regenerative circuit, which greatly strengthens radio signals to make them more audible. (He is shown (upper left) as a student and (lower) during World War I.)
This invention occurs at his home (1032 Warburton Ave., Yonkers). “His sister, Ethel, remembers vividly the night it happened. “Mother and Father were out playing cards with friends and I was fast asleep in bed. All of a sudden Howard burst into my room carrying a small box. He danced round and round the room shouting, ‘I’ve done it! I’ve done it!’”” (http://www.yonkershistory.org/arms.html). He is shown (upper right) in 1947 revisiting his bedroom in Yonkers where he made this discovery.
He later becomes a Columbia professor and invents other transformational circuitry and devices, including FM radio (1933).
Grand Central Station. It opens midnight February 2, 1913. Excavation had started in 1908. Seen here from the outside in 1913.
The largest suffrage parade to date, with 10,000 people marching down Fifth Avenue on May 10, 1913.
Students attend Camp Columbia in Connecticut for several weeks during summers to learn about surveying and other matters, from 1885 to 1966. Shown are the 1914 Camp Columbia “rules” for incoming freshman apparently set by rising sophomores, as printed in the 1953 Columbia Engineer yearbook.
1914—“Le Marteleur” presented during Festive Week. It was a gift of the Mines Class of 1889.
1914—The 50th Anniversary of the School of Mines.
1914—The plaque commemorating the 50th Anniversary of the School of Mines. The “School of Mines” sign is relocated from the Mines Building to the Mudd Building c. 1961, shortly after the School’s move. The Henry Krumb sign is added later.
