The Two Towers: Main

Its object is to educate young men with special reference to their future occupations
      --Dexter S. King, Report to House of Representatives, 1869

It was the intention of the founders of the Institute that so much of education as was given here should be thorough and introductory to future progress. . . The trustees avoided any ambitious display of the diplomas which have been given. They certified only that the graduate had completed the prescribed course of the Institute in reference to the object of his studies, so that he was prepared to learn more.
      --Stephen Salisbury II

had written hundreds of letters by hand to these boys. And they had answered. They had replied when he asked for information about their accomplishments and again when he asked, now that they were out of school--which is more useful, French or German?

By 1882 the school had two hundred and seven graduates. They had become civil engineers and mechanical engineers, employed by railroads, industries, and municipalities. They were carpenters, bookkeepers, teachers, chemists, clerks, and farmers. A few had gone on to further study.

These graduates were the school's best assets. One manufacturer told Professor Thompson: "Their training enables me to cut the year or two of lost motion for which the employer has to pay in the case of most men fresh from school."

Two years after the first graduation, the alumni formed their association. There had been a dinner "after which," it was reported with a candor which has not often since been matched, "further remarks upon no subject in particular were made by several persons." At the next meeting, however, they flexed their new muscles of influence and agitated for certain changes at the school. The first serious matter to which they gave attention was the diploma which each had been given at graduation. Although by charter the school was entitled to give degrees, it had modestly settled for diplomas with the intention of giving later rewards for "professional success."

The graduates found their diplomas to be an embarrassment. Henry Armsby, the first man to be listed as a graduate of the school by virtue of the alphabetical position of his name, complained that the diploma had prevented his receiving a doctor's degree at Yale University. A spirited debate developed between alumni and trustees. Stephen Salisbury petulantly said he didn't like the word "bachelor." It signified "one of the greatest calamities in life," yet, he supposed, no other word would be so well understood. Reluctantly agreeing to "conform in some degree to established customs," the trustees voted to confer a Bachelor of Science degree on all future and former graduates.

That the alumni had made such a creditable impression was as much to their own credit as to that of the school. These boys who came to the Institute were serious students. They had to be. Professor Thompson had written to their parents: "Your son is a member of the Free Institute . . . All the time of every student is demanded for study, recitation, drawing, and practice." He warned the parents against evening entertainment and advised the provision of a well-warmed, well-lighted study room. He frowned upon the evil influence of riding to and fro on the horse cars, a deterrent to "enthusiasm and singleness of purpose," and he firmly stated the school was "not to be regarded as an easy road to knowledge."

This was no secret to the boys. Nevertheless, in the traditional fashion of schools everywhere, the boys began to huddle together in little groups of their own. Their embryonic activities ranging