Over the years, as the College Archivist, I have received queries relating to the history of our college. One such inquiry was for information concerning Samuel F.B. Morse, inventor of the telegraph, who according to the researcher had worked on the telegraph while a Professor at the University of the City of New York. No, we cannot claim Professor Morse as one of our own, since the institution where he was on the faculty was downtown at what we now know as New York University.

The University of the City of New York was incorporated “for the purpose of promoting Literature and Science..,” in 1831. [1] The Morning Herald reported on the dedication of the building.

“In the establishment of the University of the City of New York, the commercial emporium has achieved a triumph of good taste and current judgment of which her inhabitants will ever have reason to be proud, and which will be rewarded by the gratitude of  thousands who are to reap the benefit of so noble an enterprise.” [2]

The tuition was $80 a year for a full course of study, in comparison to Columbia College, the only other college in New York City at the time which charged $90.

The student body of the new University of the City of New York first held classes at Clinton Hall in May 1833, and was made up primarily of middle and upper-class students from prominent New York families.

Clinton Hall, Nassau and Beekman Streets. NYPL Digital Collection, 1906.

The educational divide in New York City provided impetus to the movement for a Free Academy, which became a reality in 1847. The University of the City of New York and Columbia University both did not respond to the economic and social conditions of New York City. The new Free Academy enrolled young men from the public school system and offered them  a free education. Although the Academy was open to all, the majority of the students were from the city’s middle class. [3]

Commencement Ticket, 1867, University of the City of New York. Museum of the City of New York digital portal

The University of the City of New York, 1882. NYPL Digital Collection

It wasn’t until 1896 that the University of the City of New York became New York University, and in 1961 the municipal colleges became part of the City University of New York.

Notes

[1] The Act of incorporation with the ordinances, and by-laws of the University of the City of New York, 1849. University of the City of New York, 1849. p.3.

[2] Morning Herald, May 22, 1837, image 2.

[3] Thomas J. Frusciano and Marilyn H. Pettit, New York University and the City: An Illustrated History. New Jersey: Rutgers University Press, 1997, pgs. 16, 41.