Dear Sir
" I have established a school at the north end of Troy,
in Rensselaer County in the building usually called the Old Bank Place,
for the purpose of instructing persons, who may choose to apply themselves,
in the application of science to the common purposes of life. My principal
object is, to qualify teachers for instructing the sons and daughters of farmers
and mechanics, by lectures or otherwise, in the application of experimental
chemistry, philosophy and natural history, to agriculture, domestic economy,
the arts and manufactures. From the- trials which have been made
by persons in my employment at Utica, Whitesborough, Rome, Auburn, and
Geneva, during the last summer, I am inclined to believe that com
petent instructors may be produced in the school at Troy, who will be
highly useful to the community in the diffusion of a very useful kind of
knowledge, with its application to the business of living. . . ."
Founding document. Letter from Stephen Van Rensselaer
to Samuel Blatchford, November 5, 1824
(page 3 of the RPI Board of Trustees original minute
book)