#StevensHistory

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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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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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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!