Sylvanus Thayer was a United States (U.S.) Army officer who was appointed the superintendent of U.S. Military Academy from July 27,1817-July 1, 1833. After that he was assigned engineer duties in Boston, Massachusetts.
Sylvanus Thayer was commissioned 2nd lieutenant in the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in 1808, served as superintendent of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, 1817-1833, and was then U.S. Army engineer in charge of construction of fortifications at the entrance to Boston Harbor and of improvements to New England harbors generally; he retired from the Army in 1863 with the brevetted rank of brigadier-general. He established the Thayer School of Engineering at Dartmouth College in 1867, and provided a fund for a public library in Braintree, Mass., his residence.