Program and Exhibit Explore History
of Engineering Education
A lecture, Educating America’s Engineers: Historical
Perspectives, is scheduled for 4pm on Thursday,
September 25th in Linderman Library room 200. The lecture is
offered in concert with the current Special Collections
exhibition How to Become an Engineer: Toys, Tools,
and Technology, on view in Linderman until January 15,
2009.
Sponsored by the Friends of the Lehigh
Libraries and Faculty Development, the lecture will be
preceded at 3:30 pm by an exhibition viewing and reception
in the ground level gallery. Bruce Sinclair, award winning
historian of technology, will present the main talk and John
W. Fisher, Lehigh University Professor Emeritus and
international expert on large structural systems, will share
some reflections on the contributions of Lehigh University’s
engineers.
The program is free and open to the
public. For more details on the program connect to
www.lehigh.edu/lts/friends or call 610-758-3039.
The exhibition title, How to Become
an Engineer, was inspired by the name of an 1891 manual
detailing the "theoretical and practical training necessary
in fitting for the duties of the civil engineer.” The
exhibition explores the rise of formal academic programs in
civil engineering established around the time of Lehigh's
founding in 1865.
It is mounted in the ground level
gallery, the Reading Room, and in the Bayer Galleria.
Included are notable toys and tools as well as important
early works in the field of engineering education.
Also featured are some of Lehigh’s
numerous contributions to the field of civil engineering.
Lehigh researchers, faculty, and staff contributed to
monumental projects, including the construction of the
Brooklyn Bridge and the Panama Canal.
More recently, The Council on Tall
Buildings and Urban Habitat (CTBUH) was founded at Lehigh in
1969. Its mission is to study and report "on all aspects of
the planning, design, and construction of tall buildings"
and it is best known to the general public for its
compilation and ranking of the World's 100 Tallest
Buildings.
--Susan A. Cady
LTS Director for Administrative and Planning Services
Article posted September
12,
2008
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