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The Stevens Engineering Camp

🍁🍂🌝 The Fall semester begins next week! And with summer coming to a close, we wanted to throw back to the time when Stevens operated an engineering summer camp in the wilds of northern New Jersey from 1930-1955.

In the late 1920s, President Harvey Davis felt the Stevens curriculum did not adequately train its students for real world civil engineering scenarios. To address this need, President Davis envisioned a six-week long summer program situated in a rural environment that would act as an "outdoor laboratory where civil engineering may be studied under the conditions of actual practice” and where students, accustomed to life in the city, "may learn to be at home in the open, develop habits of healthy exercise and recreation, and cement the bonds of undergraduate kinship." After a extensive search for a suitable tract of land, Stevens purchased 350 acres of property approximately sixty miles north of Hoboken near Johnsonburg, NJ. The Stevens Engineering Camp opened its doors to students in the summer of 1930.

All students were required to take the summer program before the beginning of their sophomore year and although they had to contend with mosquitoes, sunburns, and poison ivy, there was also ample time for recreational fun. The camp had swimming, athletic contests, co-ed dances, band concerts, theatrical plays, barbecues, and other typical undergraduate fare. Students even published their own weekly newspaper, The TranSIT, which acted as a source of news, gossip, event postings, humor, and cartoons (as seen below) for campers to enjoy after a long day of survey work under the hot summer sun. 

For some students, the camp was the highlight of their four years at Stevens. Others referred to it camp as “six weeks of hard labor at New Jersey’s famous insect resort.” As expressed in The Stute after the camp shut down in 1955, "The Stevens Camp, with its good times and its poison ivy, will be greatly missed by all; for it was here for nearly a quarter century that the Stevens Spirit was instilled. Stevens had a camp of which it could be proud. If you are ever in the vicinity of Hackettstown it may be reached by following the road through Allamuchy and Johnsonburg. The trip is a short one, over questionable roads, and at the end you will find not only the camp but the ties of fellowship, camaraderie, and youthful joy that can never fully be expressed in print."

(Images taken from SCW.012: Student Activities Collection)

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Happy 50th Anniversary, STEP!

This summer marks the 50th anniversary of STEP (Stevens Technical Enrichment Program) at Stevens Institute of Technology. The STEP program was implemented by former Stevens President, Jess Davis, to address the underrepresentation of minorities and lower-income students in the fields of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). An article announcing the STEP program in the Summer 1968 issue of the Stevens Indicator describes the two main purposes of this new program: “First, to stimulate interest in various areas of study with the hope of creating a desire for higher education, especially in the field of science and engineering. Second, to improve the students’ skills in English and Mathematics to enable them to take advantage of the higher education opportunities available to them.”

The STEP program recruits students from high schools in the Hoboken, Jersey City, and NYC area. It’s a pre-college program with students taking summer courses in STEM fields to increase their opportunities and interest in science fields that are not always considered an option by students from underrepresented minority groups.

The first summer of STEP was in June 1968 which was written about in the New York Times on June 30, 1968. That first summer had recruited 32 students from nearby high schools who were recommended for their strong aptitude in math and science. One student named Trevor from Evander Childs High School in the Bronx was quoted as saying “It seems like a lot of fun so far.” He then added that he always got good grades in math, “but I know it’s going to be a lot more work than fun.”

Many students like Trevor were given more exposure to science and engineering fields during high school through the STEP program at Stevens. Not all STEP students ended up in STEM fields, but the students that did go on to study at Stevens boasted of one of the highest graduation rates. Back in the spring of 2008 when the program was celebrating their 40th anniversary the Stevens Indicator stated that “STEP students, in fact, have a slightly higher graduation rate, at 76 percent, than the Stevens’ overall 75 percent graduation rate.”  

The STEP program has been a great success at Stevens and continues to reach a wider population of underrepresented student populations in the nearby area. The STEP program has helped play a big part in our increased diversity which plays an essential role in the campus culture and has also helped students build confidence and motivation in demanding STEM fields.

Happy 50th Anniversary, STEP!!  

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In 1947, a Stevens alumnus wrote to C.H. Waugaman, former Assistant Dean, inquiring as to why Stevens chose Cardinal Red and Silver Gray as their official collegiate colors. He knew the exact shade of red and grey used, but turns out the story surrounding their meaning remained elusive, even to the administration. So Waugaman assigned Frances Duck, the Librarian at the time, to dig through the institutional records and solve this vexing query. During the course of her research, Duck uncovered quite a few anecdotes and hearsay but nothing that pointed to anything official. The search was inconclusive. However, it is worth sharing this one correspondence from Walter Phelps, an active member of the Alumni Association, who recalled a rather simple explanation (as seen in the letter above.) "The story I heard about the Stevens colors was told to me in my freshman year by Carter Page ’87, now deceased. He said a committee appointed to choose the colors had met and after quite a discussion were getting nowhere, when one of the members pulled out his Russian leather pocket book and put a new silver dollar on it and remarked, ‘You can’t beat those colors.’ And the committee agreed." We also found some correspondence between Waugaman and James Creese, the former Vice President of Stevens and future President of Drexel University. Speaking about the mystery of the Stevens colors, Creese opines that, “If that story of Walter Phelps’ is merely a legend, then I think it’s about time for it to be accredited by some stamp of approval. I like the myth.” We here in the Archives wholeheartedly agree.

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It’s National Teacher Appreciation Day and although there are plenty of illustrious Stevens faculty to choose from, we wanted to shine a light on one professor with a rather famous son. Most of us are familiar with Alfred Charles Kinsey, “the world's most famous sex researcher,” according to the Washington Post, who attended Stevens for two years before dropping out and going on to study Western attitudes towards human sexuality. But lesser known is his father, Alfred Seguine Kinsey, who taught at Stevens for well over half a century. In the late 1800s, Kinsey Sr. began his apprenticeship as a shop boy in the newly founded Stevens Institute of Technology. In 1891 he became an assistant to Professor Denton in the Department of Engineering Practice. Later on 1908, Kinsey was promoted to full-time faculty as head of the Department of Shop Instruction where he remained until his retirement. Though not the world’s greatest father by most accounts, Kinsey’s contributions to the field of Mechanical Engineering and its practice in the shop were highly influential at the time and are still studied today.

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🌍☀️🚯♻️🎉 The first Earth Day was celebrated on April 22, 1970 to raise public awareness for the plight of the environment and the links between pollution and public health. 

48 years ago that day, concerned students at Stevens organized their own all-day event with talks by U.S. Senator Harrison A. Williams, State Senator Frank Guarini, various public officials, and Stevens faculty members. Afterwards, the Hudson River was given a mock funeral as hundreds of solemn mourners marched down the mile long path from the Howe Center to the riverside. Pallbearers clad in black carried a casket marked with the Earth Day symbol. A reporter from The Scotch Plains Times was on hand to describe the scene: 

“As hundreds of Stevens students, faculty and Hoboken residents gathered around a casket containing the names of every polluted river in the United States, the Stevens Dramatic Society conducted 'funeral rites' for the river. Then a group of students from Scotch Plains-Fanwood High School sang folksongs at the ritual, music they had composed themselves to protest the degradation of the American environment.” 

Later that night, students staged a candlelight procession through the streets of Hoboken to symbolize the resurrection and rebirth of a dying environment.

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You may not know it from the grey skies and pools of mud on the ground, but today is Opening Day for Major League Baseball! ⚾

Throwback to our own 1930 team who ended their season with a middling 5-6 record that while disappointing, was not without its highlights. In one home game against Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (featured in the first two photos), Stevens overcame an early 6-1 deficit to slug their way back to a 16-6 victory over the Engineers. A reporter from The Link described their remarkable come from behind win:

“Spring Sports Day! A glaring sun, and hundreds of people decked out in their best for the matchup. But things didn’t look so promising for the home aggregation. The score was 6-1 and smiles were a little forced. Then—a double, a single, a tripe—and Meinhold brought three runs over the plate. Things were looking up. Fourth inning—and give more runs were scored as O’Connor and Meinhold hit home runs in succession. What a club! Things quieted down a little til the seventh inning when Meinhold again crashed through with a triple—and before the dust had settled for that inning, another group of five runs had been chalked up to the credit of Stevens. And when the final reckoning was made, Stevens was head and shoulders above R.P.I. to the tune of 16-6. The game afforded an excellent opportunity for the many spectators to give vent to their feelings, and the field rang with the cheers.”

Meanwhile, the 2018 Ducks teams have been going at it since February with Danny Poidomani on the Men’s Baseball roster pitching to an amazing 1.88 ERA and both Lauren Shirley and Corinne Loncar batting over 400 for Women’s Softball. Go Ducks!

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March is National Celery Month and to celebrate, we wanted to display a few formal dining menus featuring the Class of 1927 and our little green friend from the Apiaceae family!

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Women's History Month was first designated by Congress in 1987 as a time to “honor and celebrate the struggles and achievements of American women throughout the history of the United States”. At the Samuel C. Williams Library, we want to recognize the many contributions women have made to the Stevens community and the world at large. Our Instruction & Scholarly Communication Librarian created a research guide that compiles books, ebooks, journal articles, and internet resources on the wide and varied subject of women's role in history, as well as information about some of the women of Stevens Institute. Later in the month we will also be uploading clips from our Women of Stevens Oral History Project so stay tuned!

Image from the Administrative Offices and Departments Collection (1983): Archives & Special Collections, Samuel C. Williams Library

September, 1971, marked the beginning of a new era for Stevens as women were officially admitted into the school's undergraduate program. Out of a class of 387, 19 co-eds composed the inaugural group— a "long overdue and necessary experiment for the Institute," according to an article in the university’s alumni magazine the previous year. Many other schools of engineering had gone coeducational years ago and Stevens' insistence on an all-male academic experience had started to seem woefully old-fashioned by the late 1960s. Yet despite this shift in attitude, the presence of women in academia remained a rare sight. Indeed, by 1971, “a mere 361 women across the country had earned undergraduate degrees in engineering,” according to data from the National Science Foundation.

Lenore Schupak, the first woman to graduate from Stevens in 1974, receiving her diploma from President Rogers at commencement

Clearly, Stevens needed to deal with this burgeoning population as a sustainable experiment that could have a long lasting impact on the larger community. With each passing year, the university created new programs intended to serve this new and thriving community. In 1974, the women’s fencing team became the first all-female varsity squad at Stevens that was also coached by the university's first female coach, Linda Vollkommer-Lynch. 1977 saw the creation of the Office of Special Programs for Women which worked to increase the numbers of young women pursuing careers in engineering and science. The first national sorority, Phi Sigma Sigma, came to Stevens in 1982 and in 1999, the Lore-El Center for Women’s Leadership was established, serving "as a hub for community events, meetings and professional development opportunities for Stevens women." Today, women make up approximately 30 percent of the student population, both in the undergraduate and masters programs, and occupy many leadership roles on campus.

Check back for more profiles on some of the more trailblazing figures throughout Stevens’ history.

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A Brief History of the Stevens Mascot (or a Tale of Two Ducks)

Atilla the Duck, circa 1970s

The Spring athletic season is upon us and if you’ve ever attended a lacrosse or baseball game here on campus, you may have noticed the curious sight of an oversized duck frantically cheering on the home team from the sidelines. Most students have become familiar with Atilla, as the duck is known, who has been the official mascot of Stevens since 1972. But you may think to yourself; why a duck? Well, according to Atilla’s profile on the Stevens Athletics homepage, the choice of duck was perhaps “inspired by the school’s engineering heritage, as a Duck is equally comfortable on land, in the water or in the air.” Other sources say that one day in 1907, a duck walked onto the sidelines of a football match and after Stevens won the game, students retained the creature as a good luck charm. When it comes to stories like this, facts mingle with fiction and the best-told story oftentimes becomes the official record. So with this in mind, let’s dive into the dim reaches of our institution’s past as we attempt to uncover the origins of this fabled duck. We should note that much of this history was compiled by Stute reporter, Matt Neuteboom, who, along with the help of the Samuel C. Williams Library’s Archives & Special Collections, investigated the matter for his article, “Why the Duck?” published in 2010. So submitted for your approval, here is Matt’s brief history of our plucky mascot.

Original illustration for The Stute, 1935. Archives & Special Collections, Samuel C. Williams Library.

THE STUTE, JULY 20, 2010

“The duck’s origins actually tie in quite heavily with The Stute (the school newspaper). The story begins in 1904, when three members of the junior class of 1905, Alfred H. Potbury, L. Edwin Waldeck, and F. William Hausmann, began to talk about plans of starting a college paper. They had been at Stevens for three years and felt that the Institute would benefit greatly from a college paper. The three approached H. V. R. Scheel with the idea and the first Stute Board was assembled.

The date of first publication was scheduled to be shortly after the opening of school in September 1904. Over the summer of 1904, the four brainstormed ideas for The Stute. Scheel later wrote in the December 18, 1929 issue of The Stute “All of us had ideas – in retrospect thousands in number.” This is where the idea of using posters to chronicle the life history of The Stute was born.

Slowly, the question of how to properly introduce the paper surfaced. One of the editors approached Waldeck, an artist, with the idea of sketching something to place on the bulletin board – something that would grow. However, this request was only met with blanks stares from Waldeck. The editor repeated “Something that will grow, as we expect The Stute to grow – oh, say a duck!” The suggestion stuck, and before long a blue print of an egg was placed on the bulletin board.

As the publication date of the first Stute grew near, more posters were put up. The second was a blue print showing a duckling biting its way through its shell. In the next three weeks, a duck appeared dressed for football, lacrosse, and the mid-winter dance. According to a June 2, 1905 Stute article, he was named “Rodo.” Until The Stute became a weekly paper in 1908, Rodo would appear in every issue, often dressed for events that were occurring that week at the school.

Original illustration for poster advertising the yearly freshman/sophomore rush games, The Stute, 1907. Archives & Special Collections, Samuel C. Williams Library.

Rodo’s popularity grew in the next years. In a 1907 football game between Rutgers in New Brunswick, Rodo made its first appearance as Stevens’ mascot. A senior had purchased a duck costume and, with the help of a junior, carried the bird to the game. According to Jay Korobow in the October 22, 1971 issue of The Stute, “he waddled across the field in what he thought to be halftime only to realize too late that the third quarter had just begun.”

Stevens fans absolutely loved the suit and it was given as a gift to The Stute who displayed it in their offices. A year later the class of 1911 purchased the duck and borrowed the suit for more games (sadly, we were not able to find any documentation of either the suit or Rodo) Writing in a 1908 issue of The Stute, one student stated: “Whether the duck brought luck or not is a question, but it at least made a hit…Why not have a duck every year?”

Original illustration for The Stute, 1907. Archives & Special Collections, Samuel C. Williams Library.

However, as The Stute retired Rodo in 1908 when it became a weekly newspaper, Rodo faded away into obscurity. The tradition of having a duck at Institute sports games failed to remain a tradition. He is later mentioned in the 1929 edition of The Stute revisiting the origins of the paper, but is otherwise mostly forgotten.

Almost 60 more years would pass before someone would seriously take a look into the history of the Stevens mascot. According to Korobow in 1971, an organized attempt to find a school name and mascot was performed by The Stute on November 10, 1967 by then sports columnist Gerry Crispin. Crispin wrote, “A duck has been missing from Stevens premises. As a matter of fact he’s been missing for 60 years.” The 1967 Stute solicited suggestions for a new official nickname. Some of the popular suggestions were the Castlemen, the Rooks, the Turkeys, and the Ream Team. However, nothing ever came from the attempt.

However, the 1971 issue of The Stute once again solicited suggestions for a school nickname. This time, however, the attempt gained momentum. The movement gained popular support when student artist Jim Liberatore published his idea for the duck mascot in the February 18, 1972 edition of The Stute. Liberatore, in a somewhat half-joking, half-serious article, believed that Stevens’s students had a deficiency in human development. This was not helped by the campus, which he said, “exudes coldness and promotes isolation.” Liberatore felt that bringing back the duck would be instrumental in “bringing back an empathetic personality to this campus.”

The Stute stuck with its policy to promote the duck mascot. On March 10, 1972, The Stute urged the Student Council to sponsor a student referendum to indicate support for the duck. The referendum was created, and The Stute continued to drum up support for it with an ad in its March 17, 1972 issue. Finally, on March 24, 1972, the referendum results were announced. The duck passed with an overwhelming majority of 477 in favor of the duck, with 72 opposed, and 4 absentees. As well, 453 stated they wanted to use Liberatore’s duck as the mascot with 79 who did not and 21 absentees. With the referendum passed, the mascot went on to the Student Affairs Committee and eventually to the Board of Trustees in April.

Original concept art for Stevens mascot and illustration for naming contest (top right) by Jim Liberatore, 1972. Archives & Special Collections, Samuel C. Williams Library.

The name of Attila came from a student contest run by the bookstore from April 3-5. Student Keith Biesiada sent in the winning entry. The Stute announced the winning name of Attila the Duck, and Stevens’ mascot became the duck in spring of 1972. The duck later appeared peering out from behind an IBM computer on the May 1, 1972 cover of The Stevens Indicator.”

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Happy 148th Birthday Stevens!!

Every year on February 15th we honor the founding of Stevens Institute of Technology, named for the Stevens family. The Stevens family were known as great inventors and designers, engineers and urban planners, and their influence is still very much felt, and seen, in Hoboken, and across the nation. Edwin A. Stevens (1795 - 1868) was the youngest son of Colonel John Stevens and had a mind for engineering and business. He was the organizer and financier of the family.  

When Edwin passed away in August of 1868 he had bequeathed a block of land adjoining the family estate at Castle Point, Hoboken, and he set aside $150,000 for the erection of a building and $500,000 to establish an “Institution of learning” firmly anchoring the Stevens legacy in Hoboken, NJ. With the help of his widow, Martha Bayard Stevens, Stevens Institute of Technology was officially established on February 15,1870.

Martha Bayard Stevens also served as one of the original Trustees at Stevens, ensuring that her late husband’s vision of an institute dedicated to advanced learning was followed through in a timely manner. The Stevens Institute of Technology is America’s first university devoted to mechanical engineering. The Edwin A. Stevens Hall building was the first building on campus, the next building (Carnegie building) was not constructed until 1902. The Edwin A. Stevens Hall was designed by NY architect Richard Upjohn.

Although Stevens Institute of Technology was officially established in 1870, the school didn’t formally open to students until September 20, 1871. That first year there were a total of 21 students, and the very first student to graduate from Stevens was Mr. J. Augustus Henderson in 1873. We have his handwritten senior thesis here in the archives, the very first one we ever accepted!

Today, Stevens has over 6,000 students in attendance with a campus that is 55 acres large. In 2020 we will celebrate our 150th anniversary and will have many special events planned! 

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#ColorOurCollections is a week-long coloring fest on social media organized by libraries, archives, and other cultural institutions around the world.

Our own coloring book  (which can be downloaded as a PDF) features an assortment of grotesque caricatures created by an anonymous engraver in the style of Wenceslaus Hollar’s copies of Leonardo da Vinci’s own observational sketches from the late fifteenth century. The book was published in London in 1786 and was donated to the Stevens Library by alumnus John William Lieb, class of 1880. 

Today, the Lieb Memorial Collection of Leonardo da Vinci contains one of the finest accumulations in the Western Hemisphere of prints, manuscripts in facsimile and books by and about Leonardo da Vinci. We encourage any curious students or outside researchers to come take a look by scheduling an appointment with our Archives & Special Collections staff. 

Happy coloring!

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To start off Black History Month, we celebrate Sheila Banks, a native of Newark, NJ, who in 1978 became the first African American female to graduate from Stevens, earning her bachelor of science degree in chemical engineering. Although the school was founded in 1870, women were not admitted into the undergraduate program until Fall, 1971. President Rogers, speaking in The Indicator, took note of Banks’ achievement and called her “a woman who persevered and won.” Sheila herself stated, “I want to be accepted as a person first and not because I am black or because I’m a woman.”

During her time at Stevens, Sheila was a member of the Society of Women Engineers, served as secretary of the Black Student Union, and played violin and sang in the Glee Club. Shortly after graduating, she accepted a technical market position with Westinghouse Electric Corporation and was later promoted to sales engineer in their New York City offices.

For more Black History Month related programming at Stevens, check out the schedule of upcoming events sponsored by the Office of Diversity and Inclusion, Black Student Union, National Society of Black Engineers, Stevens Career Center, Stevens Technical Enrichment Program (STEP), and Undergraduate Student Life. 

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Happy National Bubble Wrap® Appreciation Day!

(1938 Link, Samuel C. Williams Library Archives & Special Collection)

If you’ve ever enjoyed the sensory rush of popping bubble wrap, you can thank one illustrious Stevens alumnus, the late Alfred W. Fielding.

A native of Hackensack, N.J., Fielding graduated from Stevens in 1939 and later earned his master of science degree in 1943. In 1986, Stevens awarded him an honorary Doctor of Engineering degree and in 1993, he was officially inducted into the New Jersey Inventors Hall of Fame.

But the story of Bubble Wrap goes back to 1957 in a garage in Hawthorne, N.J. where two young entrepreneurial engineers, Alfred Fielding and his partner, Marc Chavannes, created a makeshift workshop and engineering lab. Like many great discoveries throughout history, the idea for Bubble-Wrap was the unexpected product of a failed experiment. In this case, the goal was the creation of a lightweight, textural wallpaper made of plastic that could be used in modern, mid-twentieth-century homes. Along the way, Fielding and Chavannes realized their invention had a number of interesting properties that had little to do with space-age interior aesthetics. They found that creating a uniform grid of air-tight bubbles between two sheets of polyethylene plastic acted as a near-perfect insulator. Initially, it was used to stabilize the temperature inside greenhouses as well as to negate harmful static charges inside electronic circuitry. But perhaps the most revolutionary application was its use in shipping containers. BubbleWrap, as it was officially marketed, could reduce total packaging cost by using less material and reducing the exorbitant costs incurred by damaged goods. Companies were intrigued!

(Image courtesy Sealed Air Corp)

In 1960, Fielding and Chavannes founded Sealed Air Corporation with Bubble Wrap® as the company’s signature brand. For its first five years Sealed Air dealt solely in bubble wrap, before branching out into other items like padded mailers, solar pool covers and food and medical packaging services. Up until 2014, the company’s headquarters were based in Elmwood Park, New Jersey, a short drive from the garage in Hawthorne where the invention was originally realized.

Happy popping!

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Welcome back and happy first day of the Spring semester!

Here’s hoping everyone finds their proper headspace as they recommence their studies. 📚 📔📓📖

(From top to bottom): “Old Library” (1914); Palmer Hall dormitory (1942); Samuel C. Williams Library (1979); Samuel C. Williams Library (1982) — Student Activities Collection, SC Williams Library Archives & Special Collections

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Ladies and gentlemen, the short-lived Thumb-Tack Society of the Stevens Institute of Technology. Taken from the 1912 Link yearbook.

“The object of the Society is to preserve the Thumb Tacks which are so imprudently left about by extravagant Sophomores, from being lost, or stolen by unprincipled and grasping Students.”

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Probably the most festive patent we have in our collection is from Edward A. Uehling, Stevens class of 1877, who on December 25, 1894, patented a design for Christmas tree lights! Electric Christmas tree lights had already been invented by Edward Johnson, under Thomas Edison's supervision, and had been introduced to the U.S. market in 1890. But these lights were very expensive and most families were unable to afford the extravagant purchase. Even the White House didn't start to use electric Christmas tree lights until 1895. Edward Uehling's invention were marketed as a safer and more affordable method to lighting Christmas without the use of candles, which were the cause of many house fires during the holiday season. 

The custom of lighting Christmas trees with candles started in the 17th Century and originated in Germany. Uehling himself came from a family of German immigrants and was a model student during his time at Stevens. So much so that Dr. Robert Thurston, the esteemed Mechanical Engineering Professor, hand-selected him to help with experimental work in the Mechanical Laboratory after graduation. Dr. Henry Morton, the first President of Stevens, also maintained contact with Uehling via handwritten letters. In their correspondence, Morton was eager to keep up with young Uehling’s successful career which yielded a number of inventions and innovations in the field of engineering, including pig-iron molding, a flexible land-roller, gas seals for blast furnaces, a calorimeter for measuring heat in chemical reactions, and many others. 

Dr. Morton and Uehling remained great friends, and you can read through their correspondence with one another here in the archives. You can also read Uehling's autobiography in which he waxes poetic on why men should have a beard. ; ) Learn more about Edward Uehling and Stevens history by making an appointment to visit the archives. https://library.stevens.edu/archives

Happy Holidays!!  

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The Great Concrete Canoe Race of 1974

“Some arrived early, bouncing in their U-Haul and pick-up trucks over the dusty pot-holed road that snakes its way down along the piers behind the campus where the SS Stevens is moored. On this day in April, under the bluest of skies, amid the rising cheers of over 300 spectators, seven concrete canoes vied for victory on the murky currents of the Hudson.” — Stevens Indicator, Summer, 1974.

This all begs the question, can a canoe made out of concrete really float on water? The answer is well... yes — that is, of course, if you apply the proper amount of dedication and ingenuity while also studying advanced civil engineering. Concrete canoe races have been around since the 1960s, but the first intercollegiate competition sponsored by the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) was held at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 1971. According to the ASCE’s website, these races provide students with a “practical application of the engineering principles they learn in the classroom, along with important team and project management skills they will need in their careers.” 

A few years later in 1974, seven engineering colleges in the Metropolitan area faced off in the first concrete canoe regatta held at the former site of the Stevens Yacht Club in Hoboken, NJ. Represented were Rutgers, Columbia University, Manhattan College, Polytechnic Institute of New York, the Newark College of Engineers, City College of New York, and the Stevens Institute of Technology. The Stevens entry, named ‘CUE-1′ after the Civil-Urban Environmental program, required more than 400 hours of intense team-work and experimentation. Steven Zellner ’74 designed the 120 pound canoe which consisted of a reinforced wire mesh wrapped around the wooden skeleton with a 1/4 inch layer of cement lathered on top. 

The one obvious requirement was that the canoe must stay afloat when filled with water. So once the initial construction was completed, rigorous testing was carried out in the tanks of the Davidson Laboratory, the same facility where research was conducted on everything from championship racing yachts in the 1930s to NASA lunar rovers in the 1970s and 1980s. 

To man the canoe itself, a crew of two was chosen from the among the 25 civil engineering students who worked on the construction crew. It was understood among the contestants that no member of a varsity sculling, rowing, kayak, canoe or similar team could compete in the race. The course itself extended a quarter mile into the Hudson River and each team had to face the grueling currents of the river as they made the trip out and back to the starting point. A gripping account of the race was relayed by Peter McCormick, writing for the Stevens Indicator:

“Slowly the finalists padded towards the starting line. The man squinted through the sighting device. Suddenly, as the crowds squirmed in anticipation, a passing freighter created huge rolling swells. The race was delayed. The crowd grew silent. All waited. As the last wave silently rolled past and dissipated itself with a slap against the concrete bulkhead, the red flag was raised and snapped down. The crowd roared... As the crafts neared the mid-point and with Rutgers in the lead, victory seemed out of reach for the Stevens crew. Did they have the stronger crew? Would Stevens, ‘could’ Stevens let Rutgers go home glutted with victory? Then it happened. Miraculously, the CUE-1 picked up the pace, moving faster with each stroke, its crew had saved their strength for the last few meters. ‘THEY’RE NECK AND NECK!’ howled the man through the megaphone. Imperceptibly at first, then quite definitely, the CUE-1 moved into the lead, gliding easily through the water like a pat of butter on a hot pan. They gained on the Rutgers canoe with each stroke. Everyone on shore was on their feet screaming. Victory for Stevens hung heavy in the air. Sensing that defeat was near, the Rutgers canoe surged forward in one last frenzied effort to overtake Stevens. But in the twinkling of an eye, the CUE-1 was over the finish line, its crew waving their paddles in the air in triumph. The crowd exploded with cheers. The race was over.” — Stevens Indicator, Summer, 1974.

All images courtesy the Archives & Special Collections Department at the Samuel C. Williams Library