Columbia University. School of Mines

Based on the plan submitted by Thomas Egleston, Jr., to the Trustees of Columbia College in 1863, the School of Mines was founded in 1864 at the 49th Street location of the College. With only three professors in the School, supplemented by adjunct professors from the College, the School of Mines opened November 15, 1864, offering a three-year plan of study to its 24 entering students. The "Big Three" founding professors of the School were Egleston, as professor of Mineralogy and Metallurgy; Francis Laurens Vinton, professor of Mining; and Charles Frederick Chandler, profess of Analytical Chemistry and the first Dean of the School. The School found an early and lasting supporter in Columbia College President Frederick A. P. Barnard, as well as support and sponsorship from the Committee on the School of Mines, a "sub-board" of the College Trustees, responsible for overseeing the development of the new School.

In its first 35 years of existence, the School flourished as a pioneering, largely undergraduate program. During this period, the program and faculty grew. In 1868, the program of study was extended to four years. In its first decade, the School granted its first degrees of Engineer of Mines (1867), civil engineering and Ph. B. (Bachelor's of Philosophy) in chemistry (1871). The Faculty for the School of Mines, separate from the College's faculty, was created in 1865 by statute and two years later the Trustees of the College adopted a definite set of bylaws for the new Faculty. Known as Camp Columbia, a summer school for practical courses, such as surveying, began in the late 1870s and continued at various sites within easy commuting distance from New York City over the years until it finally settled at its permanent site in Litchfield, CT in 1903.

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