New York University College of Arts and Science - 19th Century

19th Century

The College of Arts & Science is directly descended from the founding of the university in 1831 which, unlike other American liberal arts colleges of the era, was founded as a non-denominational institution. The University of the City of New York was founded as a joint stock company and privately financed through the sale of stock. This prevented any religious group from dominating the affairs and management of the institution. In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, many American colleges only offered a classical education coupled with a strong theological component. University College, a predecessor undergraduate college to CAS that existed for 141 years, provided an education to all qualified men at a reasonable cost and abandoned the exclusive use of "classical" curriculum.

It is interesting to note that although University College was designed to be open to all men regardless of background, the college's early classes were composed almost exclusively of the sons of wealthy Protestant New York families. From the beginning, undergraduate education at the college focused on teaching both the classics and pragmatic subjects, such as languages, sciences, engineering and agriculture. Students were allowed to enroll in individual courses or for course work leading to the Bachelor of Arts degree. During its formative years, the College primarily served men seeking careers in law, education or medicine. Women were consigned to a "separate sphere of influence" and had fewer choices regarding an NYU education. During the history of the college and university, women were admitted only in incremental stages and in the final decades of this century, organizational strategies helped women gain equal footing.

Beginning in 1832, for a brief time, University College held classes in rented rooms in four-story Clinton Hall, located near New York's City Hall. In 1833, construction began on University Building, a grand, gothic structure that would house all university operations at Washington Square. Two years later, in 1835, the College and University took possession of its permanent home on Washington Square East, beginning NYU's enduring relationship with Greenwich Village. In 1906, University Building was replaced by a larger renovated structure that was named Main Building. In 2002, Main Building was renamed the Silver center for Arts & Science.

For much of the nineteenth century, the College remained a relatively small undergraduate liberal arts institution and the university offered space in University Building to many scientists without university affiliation. Samuel F. B. Morse invented the telegraph while teaching at the College, John W. Draper had a laboratory in University Building as well as Samuel Colt, who invented the Colt revolver in his remnants at Washington Square. Space was offered in the original University Building as "ateliers" for artists that sought refuge in the bohemian community that developed around Washington Square.

Almost immediately after the founding of University College, two new academic units were formed at the university. In 1835, the NYU School of Law was founded and in 1841, the NYU School of Medicine was founded. It was not until 1890, when the Steinhardt School of Culture, Education and Human Develoment was founded, that there was any other undergraduate education offered at the university. Also in 1890, the Women's Advisory Committee (WAC) was formed by the University Council. The primary task of the WAC was to prepare plans and recommendations for the advancement of the University's work for women. The rationale for this decision was explained by Bayrd Still, former University Professor of History and its first archivist, "It was deemed expedient to have the cooperation of representative women interested in the promotion of University work in the most advanced lines of study and investigation." Scholarships provided by WAC members also helped increase the number of women that enrolled at both the College and University.