Yale university. Sheffield scientific school

In 1847, Yale established the Department of Philosophy and Arts, which offered courses in philosophy, the arts, and the sciences. As the scientific fields gained in strength, the School of Applied Chemistry and the School of Engineering were developed. These schools were combined in 1854 to form the Yale Scientific School. In 1858 Joseph Earl Sheffield purchased the old Medical Institution and presented it to Yale, along with scientific apparatus and an endowment. The new school, dedicated as the Sheffield Scientific School, in 1861 became one of the first schools of higher education in the United States to devote its curriculum specifically to scientific training. The faculty conducted graduate as well as undergraduate courses in the sciences and engineering until 1919 when the former were discontinued. In 1954 graduate level courses were reinstated. The School's functions were absorbed by the Graduate School in 1956.

The Sheffield Scientific School, like the Graduate School, had its origins in the Department of Philosophy and the Arts established in 1847. It was given its name by the Yale Corporation in 1861 in recognition of the support of Joseph Earl Sheffield of New Haven who not only gave the first building but also provided funds for its equipment and development. Subsequently he made other gifts and finally bequeathed to a corporation, the Board of Trustees of the Sheffield S cientific School, a substantial endowment which was to be held and adninistered by the Trustees for the benefit of the natural, physical, and mathematical sciences in Yale University.

Sheffield was one of the first schools of higher education in the United States to devote its curriculum specifically to scientific training. The School played an important part in the evolution of American higher learning from the strict classical model of education t o a curriculum which encompassed a liberal scientific education.

The faculty of the School conducted graduate as well as undergraduate courses i n the sciences and engineering until 1919 when the former were discontinued. In 1932, engineering instruction was transferred to the newly organized Yale School of Engineering. In 1945 Sheffield resumed its original function of teaching at the graduate level. Under the general administration of the Graduate School, its faculty furnished instruction to graduate students in the sciences and mathematics who were M.A. and Ph.D. candidates. In 1956 the School's functions were absorbed by the Graduate School. The Directors of Sheffield Scientific School were: George Jarvis Brush, 1872-1898; Russell Henry Chittenden, 1898-1922; Charles Hyde Warren, 1922-1945; Edmund Ware Linnott, 1945-1956.

For further information see History of the Sheffield Scientific School of Yale University, 1846-1922 by Russell H. Chittenden (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1928).