47 8 



POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



SHORTER ARTICLES AND CORRESPONDENCE. 



THE CENTENNIAL OF WILLIAM 

 BARTON ROGERS. 

 On the seventh of December at the 

 Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 

 in a convocation of students and fac- 

 ulty, were held exercises in commem- 

 oration of the one hundredth anni- 

 versary of the birth of William Barton 

 Rogers, the founder and first presi- 

 dent of the institute. These exercises 

 were of more than local interest, be- 

 cause the man in whose honor they 

 were held has filled a great place in 

 American education and American sci- 

 ence. Born in Philadalphia in 1804, 

 he passed his early boyhood and man- 

 hood at the old William and Mary 

 College at Williamsburg, Va. In this 

 institution his father was professor 

 of natural science, and in the academic 

 freedom of which this college was then 

 one of the few exemplars, the young 

 Rogers was able to follow the leadings 

 of his own genius. He became pro- 

 fessor there in 1828, and was trans- 

 ferred to the University of Virginia, 

 in 1835, as professor of natural philos- 

 ophy. His career in the latter place 

 was one of great influence and power, 

 not only as a teacher, but as an in- 

 vestigator. In connection with his 

 talented brother he inaugurated the 

 geological survey of Virginia, which 

 survey has become almost a classic. 



While living here and during fre- 

 quent trips to Europe he became im- 

 pressed with the need in America of 

 institutions in which scientific studies 

 might form the basis of education; and 

 his removal to Boston, in 1853, was 

 in large measure due to his belief that 

 in this community was to be found 

 a better opportunity for the founding 

 of such an institution than in Virginia. 

 Nothing which Mr. Rogers did could 



have more clearly indicated his good 

 judgment than this conclusion, for 

 there was certainly no community in 

 America so ready for the building of 

 a great technical school as Boston. 



Here, amidst the stress of the years 

 of the civil war and under all the 

 discouragements which those years 

 brought he founded the Institute of 

 Technology, which forms to-day his 

 greatest monument and which con- 

 tinued to be, until the very close of 

 his life, his chief concern. He died 

 splendidly, in the very act of service, 

 at the Commencement of June, 1882, 

 as he was addressing the graduating 

 class. Combining as he did the charm 

 of a gracious and pleasing personality 

 with the power of an orator, of a great 

 teacher and of an investigator it is 

 not strange that those who have re- 

 ceived their education in the Institute 

 of Technology should have for him a 

 reverence and an affection far above 

 that which they entertain for any other 

 man. In the truest and fullest sense 

 the institute was founded by him, and 

 in large measure drew its inspira- 

 tion and life from his enthusiasm and 

 devotion. 



The exercises held on December 7 

 were simple, but full of tender regard 

 for President Rogers and his work. 

 An introductory address by the presi- 

 dent of the institute dealt with a gen- 

 eral estimate of the originality and 

 breadth of Mr. Rogers's educational 

 conceptions. President Lyon G. Tyler, 

 of William and Mary College, told of 

 the influence of that famous institution 

 in the forming of Mr. Rogers's char- 

 acter and in the training of his genius. 

 Professor Francis H. Smith, of the 

 University of Virginia, spoke as an old 

 pupil of Mr. Rogers and of his power 

 as a great teacher. Professor Robert H. 



