Massachusetts Institute of Technology: Difference between revisions

=== Early developments ===

[[File:Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Boston, Mass (NYPL b12647398-74365) (cropped).tiff|thumb|left|The then-new [[Cambridge, Massachusetts|Cambridge]] campus, completed in 1916. The [[Harvard Bridge]], named before MIT's move to Cambridge, is in the foreground.]]

Two days after MIT was chartered, the [[Battle of Fort Sumter|first battle]] of the [[American Civil War|Civil War]] broke out. After a long delay through the war years, MIT's first classes were held in the Mercantile Building in Boston in 1865.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Andrews |first1=Elizabeth |first2=Nora |last2=Murphy |first3=Tom |last3=Rosko |year=2000 |url=http://libraries.mit.edu/archives/exhibits/wbr-visionary/ |publisher=MIT |title=William Barton Rogers: MIT's Visionary Founder |access-date=March 8, 2006 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080512091317/http://libraries.mit.edu/archives/exhibits/wbr-visionary/ |archive-date=May 12, 2008 |url-status=dead}}</ref> The new institute was founded as part of the [[Morrill Land-Grant Colleges Act]] to fund institutions "to promote the liberal and practical education of the industrial classes" and was a land-grant school.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Stratton |first1=Julius Adams |last2=Mannix |first2=Loretta H. |title=Mind and Hand: The Birth of MIT |url=https://archive.org/details/mindhandbirthmit00stra |url-access=limited |pages=[https://archive.org/details/mindhandbirthmit00stra/page/n271 251]–276 |chapter=The Land-Grant Act of 1862 |isbn=0-262-19524-0 |publisher=[[MIT Press]] |year=2005}}</ref><ref name="LoC">{{cite news |title=Morrill Act:Primary Documents of American History |url=https://www.loc.gov/rr/program/bib/ourdocs/Morrill.html |access-date=February 10, 2016 |work=[[Library of Congress]] |date=2016}}</ref> In 1863 under the same act, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts founded the [[University of Massachusetts Amherst#History|Massachusetts Agricultural College]], which developed as the [[University of Massachusetts Amherst]]. In 1866, the proceeds from land sales went toward new buildings in the Back Bay.<ref name="BostonTech1">{{cite book |title=When MIT Was "Boston Tech", 1861–1916 |last=Prescott |first=Samuel C |year=1954 |publisher=[[MIT Press]]}}</ref>