Table of Contents

Acknowledgments ix
“A future full of promise” 1
William Barton Rogers, 1804–1882
“Sailing seas not well charted” 47
John Daniel Runkle, 1822–1902
“All that we hold true and manly” 101
Francis Amasa Walker, 1840–1897
“Uneasy lies the head” 149
James Mason Crafts, 1839–1917
“Into touch with the world at large” 175
Henry Smith Pritchett, 1857–1939
“Thoroughly sure of himself” 221
Richard Cockburn Maclaurin, 1870–1920
“Not the man for us” 281
Ernest Fox Nichols, 1869–1924
“Shaping things in orderly fashion” 295
Samuel Wesley Stratton, 1861–1931
“All knowledge his sphere” 355
Karl Taylor Compton, 1887–1954
Notes 431
Sources 459
Index 475

About the Author

Philip N. Alexander is a Research Associate in the Program in Writing and Humanistic Studies at MIT.

Reviews

[Alexander's] highly readable new book is remarkable for the human interest that colors the institutional history...The author has an uncanny knack for unearthing and encapsulating telling details. The book achieves exactly the right blend of technical explanation and anecdote.--Jeffrey Mifflin, , Historical Journal of Massachusetts