The first non-Mines degree, Civil Engineering, is first conferred in 1875. (Pictured: a very early C.E. degree from 1877.) Added to the curriculum in 1868, Civil Engineering was the first department added to the School of Mines, which later becomes The Fu Foundation School of Engineering and Applied Science.
The first PhD from the School of Mines and Columbia University is awarded in June 1875 to Elwyn Waller for his work in analytics chemistry.
Early format of PhD degree awarded by the School of Mines.
Class of 1878 students attend the School of Mines Summer School in Drifton, PA in 1877. Students did mining and surveying during summers until 1966.
Graduation photograph of the School of Mines’ Class of 1877, posed outside the entrance of a building on the earlier campus, between 49th and 50th Streets and Madison and Park Avenues.
Mines students launch The Miner in 1877, the same year as the Columbia Spectator is launched. Pictured: The Miner for 1878 (by the Class of 1879).
The Miner for 1878 (by the Class of 1879). Left: editors; Right: authors.
Ads in The Miner for 1878 (by the Class of 1879).
Students participating in the Summer Geodesy, Osterville, MA, 1878.
The first issue of the School of Mines Quarterly, November 1879, with contents.
The first bound issue of the School of Mines Quarterly, faculty articles.
The sad state of public health in New York. Board of Health Commissioner Prof. Chandler helps battle disease, 1873-1883. Left: “Cholera” sitting on the bow of a ship, with the Board of Health defending New York from it, from Leslie’s Weekly, 1883. Right: Illustration from Puck, December 17, 1879.
Class of 1879 mining students mining.
Class of 1881 mining students—The Summer School of Practical Mining, School of Mines, Dickerson Mine, June 15-July 2, 1880.
The proposal to move Columbia University to Morningside Heights, 1881.
The opening of the Brooklyn Bridge, May 24, 1883. “Bird’s-Eye View of the Great New York and Brooklyn Bridge and Grand Display of Fire Works on Opening Night,” Brooklyn Museum Collection.
Camp Columbia, 1883. Entering undergraduate students attend Camp Columbia in Connecticut for several weeks before their first year, until 1966.
Qualitative Lab, 1883.
Top: Construction of the Statue of Liberty in 1884. Bottom: The statue is dedicated on October 28, 1886, and two days later, the Harper’s Weekly included this illustration by Harry Fenn.
