Archives & Special Collections

The Stevens family of Hoboken was one of the greatest engineering and inventor families of America, and Colonel John Stevens (1749 – 1838) was among the foremost engineers and naval architects of the 19th century.  

In 1776, at age 27, John Stevens was appointed a captain in Washington's army in the American Revolutionary War and was promoted to colonel soon after. From 1776 - 1779, Colonel Stevens was the treasurer of New Jersey, and in 1790 he helped advocate the first U.S. patent law. He is best known for laboring throughout his life for the application of steamboat navigation and railroad locomotion and is often referred to as the “Father of the American Railroad.”  

“The wealth and prosperity of a nation may be said to depend almost entirely, upon the facility and cheapness with which transportation is effected internally”.                             — Col. John Stevens, 1806                                                                                      

Steamboat Innovation

• The Stevens family were leaders in steam navigation and marine engineering. 
• In 1804, Colonel John Stevens built the Little Juliana, one of the first American-built steam engines, which included dual rotary valves and a twin-screw propeller. It successfully navigated New York Harbor at a velocity of four miles an hour.  
• Three years later in 1807, Stevens built the 50 foot-long paddle-steamer, the Phoenix, which became the first steamboat to sail the open ocean during its journey from New York City to Philadelphia, partially to avoid Robert Fulton and Robert Livingston's monopoly on the Hudson River.

The Father of the American Railroad

• Colonel John Stevens was an early advocate for steam-powered railroads in America at a time when horse-drawn carriages and boats were the primary form of transportation across the country. 
• In 1812, he published a forward-thinking pamphlet promoting railroads titled, Documents Tending to Prove the Superior Advantages of Rail-Ways and Steam Carriages Over Canal Navigation. Former Smithsonian curator, J. Elfreth Watkins, referred to this document as “the birth certificate of all railroads in the United States.”
• In 1815, John Stevens secured the first railroad charter in America for a route from Trenton to New Brunswick in New Jersey. Although the route was never constructed, it created momentum for the early development of railroads in the United States.
• In 1825, Colonel John Stevens built his own steam locomotive and tested it on a small circular track on his property in Hoboken. Stevens wanted to convince a skeptical public that steam-powered transportation on land was both safe and more efficient than road or waterway. His invention is widely credited as the first operational steam locomotive built in the United States. 
• A replica of the 1825 steam locomotive was built in 1928 by the Pennsylvania Railroad Company to commemorate the inauguration of Stevens’ third president, Dr. Harvey N. Davis, and is currently on view on the first floor of the Samuel C. Williams Library. The original boiler and safety valve are housed in the Smithsonian Institution’s collections and are the only pieces that remain of the original 1825 locomotive. 
• In 1830, John Stevens' sons, Robert and Edwin, established the Camden & Amboy Railroad Co., the first passenger railroad in New Jersey, which ran the iconic “John Bull” locomotive during its early years.  

Naval Design

• As early as the War of 1812, Colonel John Stevens and Robert L. Stevens advocated the construction of a “steam battery” for naval defense.  
• In 1842, Congress passed the “Act Authorizing the Construction of a Steamer for Harbor Defense” and Robert L. Stevens was contracted to build an ironclad ship.   
• The “Stevens Battery” was the first ironclad ship designed in America. Although it was never completed, partly because of Robert L. Stevens’ death in 1856, its innovative design later influenced Civil War-era vessels like the USS Monitor. 

The Stevens Family Collection, housed in the Samuel C. Williams Library's Archives & Special Collections, contains materials written by and related to members of the Stevens family dating from 1699 to the later part of the twentieth-century. Materials exist in a variety of media including correspondence (original and photocopied), photographs, newspaper clippings, handwritten manuscripts, scrapbooks, subject file articles, pamphlets, general history articles, and oral history transcripts.

When Col. John Stevens’ son, Edwin A. Stevens, passed away in 1868, he left in his will a block of land adjoining his family’s estate in Hoboken and a sizable endowment for an “institution of learning.” His widow, Martha Bayard Stevens (1831-1899), served on the Board of Trustees and was particularly instrumental in ensuring this institution would perpetuate the Stevens family’s legacy of innovation and be “devoted to the study of mechanical engineering.”  

The founding of Stevens Institute of Technology in 1870 occurred during a period of rapid growth in American engineering education. When Stevens opened its doors in 1871, it was the first university to offer a degree in mechanical engineering. The initial class consisted of 21 students taught by eight faculty members, with all the classrooms and laboratories housed in the original school building, now known as Edwin A. Stevens Hall.  

Robert Thurston (1839-1903) and the First Mechanical Engineering Laboratory at an Institution of Higher Learning

Among the original eight faculty members at Stevens was the pioneering engineering educator, Robert H. Thurston, who served as the school’s first Professor of Mechanical Engineering.  

Robert Thurston Highlights:

• Thurston established the first mechanical laboratory for funded research at an American institution of higher learning, which was equipped with various testing devices, notably the autographic torsion testing machine, a device for recording tests of the strength of materials used in boilerplates, tools, and engine parts. 
• Thurston was elected the first president of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME), which held its first meeting at Stevens on April 7, 1880, in what is now DeBaun Auditorium in Edwin A. Stevens Hall.  

John W. Lieb (1860-1929): The Father of Light in Europe

Electrical engineer John W. Lieb, Stevens Class of 1880, attended Stevens during an exciting time for invention. The new incandescent light bulb, phonograph, and telephone were all making huge impacts on industrial and residential America. Shortly after graduating Lieb was personally hired by Thomas Edison to work for his Edison Illuminating Company. 

John W. Lieb Highlights:

• Lieb served as the chief electrical engineer for the construction of the historic Pearl Street Station in Lower Manhattan, which began operation in 1882 and was the first central power station in the country.  
• Lieb later worked for Edison in northern Italy, constructing the first central electric station there.  
• While working in Italy, Lieb was inspired by the engineering ingenuity of Leonardo da Vinci and collected every text he could find on the Renaissance polymath. The John W. Lieb Memorial Collection of Leonardo da Vinci is housed on the second floor of the Samuel C. Williams Library and is accessible to researchers by appointment.

Louis Alan Hazeltine (1886-1964) and the Neutrodyne Receiver

Louis Alan Hazeltine graduated from Stevens Institute of Technology in 1906, and after working for General Electric from 1906-1907, returned to his alma mater to begin a long and influential career as a researcher and professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering. 

• While serving as a consultant for the US Navy during World War I, Hazeltine designed a circuit for radio receivers that eliminated the various “shrieks, squelches and groans” that plagued terrestrial transmissions at the time.
• In 1922, Hazeltine patented the Neutrodyne receiver, which was developed at Stevens and offered a clearer, less distorted signal that contributed to the golden age of commercial radio broadcasting. 
• Hazeltine later formed the Hazeltine Corporation, which would go on to play a major role in the development of radio, television, and other areas of electronic innovation.  
• By 1927, it was estimated that 10 million radio receivers used Hazeltine’s technology.  

By the turn of the 20th century, engineering had changed radically from a profession primarily learned on the job as an apprentice; to a highly skilled one with its own specialized curriculum. Soon, a need arose for a new type of engineer, the manager, who could oversee and orchestrate not just the machines in the factory, but also the people who operated them. Frederick Winslow Taylor (Stevens Class of 1883) and Henry L. Gantt (Stevens Class of 1884) were some of these early and influential figures in the “scientific management” and “project management” movements, whose theories and tools would radically transform the practice of labor and efficiency in the factory, the office, the home, and even the inner workings of government. 

Frederick W. Taylor (1856-1915) and Scientific Management

• Frederick W. Taylor originated the idea that engineering concepts of standardization and efficiency could be applied to the workforce by using accurate scientific measurements.  
• Taylor later became an influential figure in the burgeoning business management field after the publication of his seminal 1911 work, The Principles of Scientific Management, which became a surprise best-seller.  
• Scientific management, or “Taylorism” as it is often called, is now so absorbed in our business and industrial economy that we can hardly detect it. “Efficiency experts” are still widely used and the impact of scientific management on industry and the workforce remains a much-discussed topic in labor studies. 

The Frederick Winslow Taylor Collection, housed in the Samuel C. Williams Library’s Archives & Special Collections, largely consists of Taylor's personal and work-related correspondence, rough drafts of his published work, and documentation of his work implementing scientific management in industry. Notable correspondents include United States Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis, Frank and Lillian Gilbreth, Upton Sinclair, Ida Tarbell, and other supporters and critics of scientific management.

Henry Gantt (1861-1919) and the Gantt Chart

• Henry Laurence Gantt (Stevens Class of 1884) is probably best known for the creation of the Gantt Chart, a project management tool that helped managers and workers visualize how much work needs to be done and when it could be completed.  
• The first iteration of the Gantt chart was developed by Gantt for the American Locomotive Company in 1903.  
• Gantt was a close associate of fellow Stevens alumnus, Frederick W. Taylor, and helped Taylor develop the “task bonus” system of payment while implementing scientific management at Bethlehem Steel. Before Gantt’s improvement with this system, Taylor’s “differential piece rate” scheme penalized workers if they failed to turn out a certain number of pieces with a lower pay rate. Gantt’s “task bonus” system was met with enthusiasm because the working man was assured a good wage but could gain the opportunity to receive a bonus if his work exceeded the demand.  
• Scholars believed that Gantt helped Taylor “humanize” scientific management, and Taylor was vocal about giving Gantt credit for his help. 

With the official establishment of the graduate division in 1938; and the doctoral program in the 1950s. The 1950s and 1960s were years of rapid growth in technology and scientific research at Stevens. The growth in federally funded research also led to an increase in the output of scholarly published work in every department on campus. This period of increased research and impact was greatly felt at the Davidson Laboratory, which is still one of the largest and most widely renowned hydrodynamic and ocean engineering research facilities in the nation.  

Kenneth Davidson (1898-1958) and the Davidson Laboratory

The almost 100-year history of the Davidson Laboratory, originally named the Experimental Towing Tank, is a testament to the passion and innovative spirit of its founder, Dr. Kenneth Davidson, who sought to apply his maritime engineering theories to real-world empirical observation. Davidson joined the Stevens faculty in 1930 and began to use the Walker Gymnasium swimming pool to test the physical properties of maritime vessels with small-scale models in various simulated weather conditions.  

As Davidson’s ambitions began to outgrow the limits of the gymnasium, Stevens constructed a standalone facility for Davidson’s research in 1935, making it one of the oldest maritime vessel research centers in the United States. After playing a crucial role in the design of 1937’s America’s Cup race winner, the facility began a long-standing relationship with the United States government and during World War II, devoted its resources to supporting the war effort. After Davidson’s death in 1958, the Experimental Towing Tank was rededicated as the Davidson Laboratory and continued its partnership with the government to help design the first modern submarine, the USS Albacore. In the 1970s, the Lab's “soil tank” was used to test NASA's lunar rover. 

Today, the Davidson Laboratory works closely with the Department of Homeland Security and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration on projects including sophisticated modeling and forecasting of weather conditions to better assist preparation for and response to storms, floods, accidents, and other emergencies on water. 

Alfred M. Mayer (1836-1897) and His Pioneering Acoustical Research

When Stevens was established in 1870, so was one of the first physics laboratories in America. The first physics professor was Alfred M. Mayer (1836-1897), who was regarded as one of the preeminent figures in the nascent field of acoustical studies. In 1872 he was elected a member of the National Academy of Sciences and published hundreds of research studies on a variety of subjects including acoustics, magnetism, optics, astronomy, metallurgy, and even archaeology, earning him the nickname, the "prince of experimenters."

Stevens would go on to have an illustrious list of faculty and alumni who made their mark in the world of physics, continuing Mayer’s legacy of probing the boundaries of our understanding of the world around us. 

Frederick Reines (1918-1998) and Neutrino Detection

Frederick Reines’ (Stevens Class of 1939) long and influential career as a Nobel Prize-winning physicist began in fall 1935, when he began his undergraduate studies at Stevens. He displayed an early passion for scientific discovery, writing in his junior-year diary: "I'd like to discover one little thing and build my career around it.” He later earned his doctoral degree in theoretical physics from NYU in 1944 and was soon recruited by the well-known scientist, Richard Feynman, to work on the top-secret Manhattan Project during World War II. There, alongside the greatest scientific minds of his generation, Reines played a crucial role in the development of the atomic bomb. 

After the war, Reines and his colleague Clyde Cowan, began a series of experiments designed to finally confirm the existence of the neutrino particle, thought to be the fundamental building block of our known universe. After years of painstaking research, the two scientists detected the elusive “ghost particle” in 1956 at the Savannah River Site in North Carolina. This groundbreaking discovery would lead to Reines and Cowan being awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1995. 

Winston Bostick (1916-1991) 

Dr. Winston Bostick joined Stevens in 1956 and taught in the Physics Department until 1981. Bostick was internationally known for his work in plasma and cosmic-ray physics, and in 1961 he developed a concept that provided for the first time, a way to explain the physical properties of elementary particles, one of the major mysteries of modern physics. In the 1950s, Bostick developed a “plasma gun” that shot bursts of atomic particles at high speeds through a magnetic field for research purposes and conceived of a high-speed plasma motor for space flight. Bostick was the principal investigator for the extensive plasma research program at Stevens, which was funded by various government agencies 

During Bostick’s time as head of the Physics department, the number of faculty members increased from nine to 22; and the research budget increased from $10,000 to over half a million dollars. Dr. Bostick’s originality and scope of physical intuition seemed to leave a lasting impact on his scientific colleagues and students, who held him in very high esteem.   

Dr. Henry Morton and His Dedication to the Humanities

Dr. Henry Morton served as the first president of Stevens from 1870 until his death in 1902 and was not only known for his great intellect but also his interest in literature, archeology, and the arts. During his undergraduate years at the University of Pennsylvania, Morton wrote poetry and even helped translate parts of The Rosetta Stone as a member of the Philomathean Society, one of the oldest literary societies in the country. He would go on to become secretary of the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia, where he gave a series of lectures on topics like optical illusions, solar eclipses, and chemistry to the general public. To standing room audiences, he quickly earned a reputation as a showman who knew how to captivate a crowd while also communicating complex scientific subjects to the public in dramatic, entertaining, and simplified manner. A colleague later described Morton as “a genius endowed with balance of character." In 1870, Morton was selected to serve as the first president of Stevens Institute of Technology by the Board of Trustees and soon recruited some of the greatest scientific minds of the time to serve as the school’s original faculty. His eclectic background helped shape Stevens’ early curriculum, which included humanities and foreign languages courses alongside the traditional science and technology offerings. 

Alexander Calder (1878-1976), Sculptor of Shape, Color and Motion

Before he was a world-renowned artist, Alexander “Sandy” Calder (Stevens Class of 1919) was a student at Stevens, where he played on the football and lacrosse teams, was a member of the Delta Tau Delta fraternity, and served on the Honor Board until his graduation. While at Stevens, Calder studied physics, mathematics, chemistry, descriptive geometry, mechanics, hydraulics, thermodynamics and electrical and structural engineering. Although Calder tried his hand at working as a mechanical engineer after his graduation from Stevens, his heart was always more interested in the arts. Born to a family of artists, he returned to his main passion when he enrolled in the Art Students League in New York in 1923 and then moved to Paris in 1926, where his art career flourished. It was also in Paris where Calder invented the kinetic sculpture, in 1931, which was first called a “mobile” by artist Marcel Duchamp, meaning both “motion” and “motive” in French.  

Harold Burris-Meyer (1902-1984) and Experimental Sound Research

Harold Burris-Meyer’s groundbreaking research in the mid 20th century investigated the use of sound as a tool for emotional and physiological control and played a critical role in the emerging fields of sound design for theater, music for industry; and applied psychoacoustics for warfare. Burris-Meyer began his 25-year association with Stevens in 1929, when he became Professor of Dramatic Arts and Director of the Sound Research Department. During this time, he also served as a consultant to several Broadway and Metropolitan Opera productions, where he employed “controlled light and sound” to induce a wide range of physical and psychological responses in the audience.  

His research caught the attention of the United States government during World War II., Burris-Meyer was employed by the National Defense Research Committee to study the use of sound as a weapon of war. Around this time, Burris-Meyer expanded his research into the use of sound and music in industrial settings. Burris-Meyer served as a consultant for the Muzak Corporation and conducted a series of studies at Stevens that demonstrated the use of “controlled music” in factories as a method of optimizing employee productivity, decreasing fatigue, and improving overall morale. Burris-Meyer became vice president of Muzak in the late 1940s and retired from Stevens in 1954. 

The impact that Stevens alumni and faculty have had on technology in America is extensive. In the early days, many Stevens graduates would get their career starts at the pinnacle of research and innovation in New Jersey, Bell Telephone Laboratories (Bell Labs). Bell Labs was an American industrial research and development company which is credited with the development of radio astronomy, the transistor, the laser, the Unix operating system, and many improvements in wireless communications. Here are a few highlights from the archives of distinguished alumni who made a huge contribution to the development of technological advances in America and worked at the prestigious “idea factory” known as Bell Labs.  

David Farber: Grandfather of the Internet

David J. Farber is often referred to as the “grandfather of the Internet,” - a well-earned title for an accomplished computer scientist who was recognized with induction into the Pioneers Circle of the Internet Hall of Fame in 2013. Farber graduated from Stevens in 1956 with an M.E. degree and a second degree in mathematics in 1961. After graduation, Farber started his career at Bell Labs and was there for 11 years, extensively in academic research.  

David Farber and Development of the Internet:  

• At Bell Labs he helped design the first electronic switching system (ESS-1) and the programming language, SNOBL. 
• Worked on creating the world’s first operational distributed computer system.  
• Helped conceive and organize the National Science Foundation’s Computer Science Network (CSNet). His then-experimental network technology research helped develop the commercial Internet that we rely on today! 

Frederick B. Llewellyn (1897-1971)

Frederick B. Llewellyn attended the Marconi School for Wireless Operators in 1915, before entering the Merchant Marine when America entered World War I in 1917. Llewellyn went on to attend Stevens, graduating in 1922 and taking classes under the guidance of Professor Louis Alan Hazeltine, the inventor of the Neutrodyne. Llewellyn spent most of his career at Bell Labs, starting at Western Electric Company in 1923, which was incorporated as Bell Labs in 1925, and he retired as the assistant to the president of Bell Labs in 1961.  

Frederick B. Llewellyn Career Highlights: 

• Worked towards expanding radio technology and long-wave transatlantic telephone operations. 
• Became a consultant in the field of systems engineering and mainly concerned himself with transoceanic and land repeater transmission systems.  
• At the time of his passing in 1971, he held 39 patents in the field of electronics.  

Lorinda L. Cherry (1944-2022)

Stevens alumna; Lorinda L. Cherry ‘69 M.S. received her master's in computer science from Stevens in 1969; at a time when the computer science program was more of a specialized math degree with only a few select women and before Stevens became coeducational in 1971. Cherry was a computer scientist who spent most of her career at Bell Labs. and was part of the early development of the Unix operating system. 

Accomplishments in the Field of Computer Science: 

• Part of the early development of the Unix operating system, Cherry created the popular Unix tool “dc,” an unlimited precision desk calculator.  
• Helped develop an early computer program at Bell Labs called the Writer’s Workbench, which checked for spelling errors, punctuation and writing styles. 

Some inventive alumni might not be as well known, or sometimes their invention didn’t take off the way it was planned, but their creative and forward-thinking inventions and innovative ideas are a huge source of inspiration. We pay homage to those who have envisioned a better world for all, regardless of the obstacles they faced. 

Alfred Fielding (1917-1944)

Like many great discoveries, the idea for bubble wrap was the by-product of unsuccessful experimentation. In their makeshift garage workshop in Hawthorne, N.J., Alfred Fielding and his partner, Marc Chavannes, created a lightweight, futuristic-looking, plastic wallpaper that could be used in stylish, mid-twentieth-century homes.

Along the way, they realized their invention had several interesting properties that had little to do with space-age interior aesthetics. Bubble Wrap, as it was officially marketed, could reduce total packaging cost by using less material and reducing the exorbitant costs incurred by damaged goods. 

For his almost 30 years of entrepreneurship and “mastery of engineering skills in the packaging industry,” Fielding was awarded an honorary Doctor of Engineering degree from Stevens in 1986 and was inducted into the New Jersey Inventors Hall of Fame in 1993.

Beatrice Hicks (1919-1979)

Beatrice Hicks, ‘49 M.S has a long list of achievements; here are just a few career highlights:

• In 1939 she became the first woman to earn a bachelor's degree in engineering from Newark College, now New Jersey Institute of Technology.  
• The first woman to be hired as an engineer at Western Electric Company. 
• Hicks designed and patented a gas density switch, a key component in regulating artificial atmospheres that was later used by NASA during Project Apollo’s moon missions.   
• Co-founded and became the first president of the Society of Women Engineers in 1950.  
• Recipient of the Woman of the Year in Business Award in 1952, the Newark College of Engineering Alumna Award in 1961, the Society of Women Engineers Achievement Award in 1963, and the National Academy of Engineering award in 1978. 

Igor Bensen (1917-2000)

Igor Bensen was a Russian immigrant who came to the United States in 1937 with big dreams, and started at Stevens soon after arriving, graduating in 1940. 

Before forming his own company, Bensen Aircraft, he studied the application of jet propulsion to helicopters at General Electric, but he was always more drawn to gyrocopters because they were mechanically simple. Bensen Aircraft went on to manufacture gyrocopter kits, making flights easier and more accessible. The gyrocopter never took off, but it inspired a lot of people and there are still clubs and organizations worldwide with gyrocopter enthusiasts. Bensen’s B-8M gyrocopter the “Spirit of Kitty Hawk” is now on permanent display at the Smithsonian’s Air and Space Museum. 

James Braxton (1914-2015)

When Dr. James Braxton was a young man, he wrote out a list defining success that included, “to leave the world a bit better,” inspired by Ralph Waldo Emerson. Braxton was the second African-American student to graduate from Stevens and after graduating in 1937, embarked on an inspiring career.  

James Braxton’s Career Highlights:  

• Worked on projects with famed architects, Hilyard Robinson and Samuel Plato.  
• Won the prestigious Julius Rosenwald award in 1946. 
• In 1950, Braxton was recruited for a position at the Chicago Housing Authority and was later promoted to assistant chief engineer of the Metropolitan Sanitary District of Chicago, making him the first African-American to hold a top engineering position in that district. 
• Worked on affordable and equitable housing, a central theme throughout his career which culminated into his patented housing system known as “lok-in" blocks.  

The James Braxton Papers, housed in the Samuel C. Williams Library's Archives & Special Collections, document Braxton's exceptional life and legacy fighting for racial equality.