The history of the Delft University of Technology started in the year 1842 with the foundation of the Royal Academy (1842–1864). The Royal Academy restarted in 1864 as the Polytechnic School (1864–1905), which evolved the

Delft University of Technology Delft University of Technology ( nl, Technische Universiteit Delft), also known as TU Delft, is the oldest and largest Dutch public technical university, located in Delft, Netherlands. As of 2022 it is ranked by QS World University Rankings among ...

in 1905.

History

Royal Academy (1842–1864)

was founded on January 8, 1842 by

King William II of the Netherlands William II ( nl, Willem Frederik George Lodewijk, anglicized as William Frederick George Louis; 6 December 1792 – 17 March 1849) was King of the Netherlands, Grand Duke of Luxembourg, and Duke of Limburg. William II was the son of William ...

as ''Royal Academy for the education of civilian engineers, for serving both nation and industry, and of apprentices for trade''. One of the purposes of the academy was to educate civil servants for the colonies of the

Dutch East India Company The United East India Company ( nl, Verenigde Oostindische Compagnie, the VOC) was a chartered company established on the 20th March 1602 by the States General of the Netherlands amalgamating existing companies into the first joint-stock ...

. The first director of the academy was Antoine Lipkens, constructor of the first Dutch

optical telegraph An optical telegraph is a line of stations, typically towers, for the purpose of conveying textual information by means of visual signals. There are two main types of such systems; the semaphore telegraph which uses pivoted indicator arms and ...

, called simply as Lipkens. Royal Academy had its first building located at Oude Delft 95 Street in

Delft Delft () is a List of cities in the Netherlands by province, city and Municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality in the Provinces of the Netherlands, province of South Holland, Netherlands. It is located between Rotterdam, to the southeast, ...

. On May 23, 1863 an Act was passed imposing regulations on technical education in the

Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

, bringing it under the rules of secondary education.

Polytechnic School (1864–1905)

On June 20, 1864 Royal Academy in Delft was disbanded by a Royal

Decree A decree is a legal proclamation, usually issued by a head of state (such as the president of a republic or a monarch), according to certain procedures (usually established in a constitution). It has the force of law. The particular term used for ...

, giving a way to a ''Polytechnic School of Delft'' ( nl, Politechnische School van Delft). The newly formed school educated

engineers Engineers, as practitioners of engineering, are professionals who invent, design, analyze, build and test machines, complex systems, structures, gadgets and materials to fulfill functional objectives and requirements while considering the limit ...

of various fields and architects, so much needed during the rapid industrialization period in the 19th century.

Institute of Technology (1905-1986)

Yet another Act, passed on May 22, 1905, changed the name of the school to ''Technische College (Institute) of Delft'' ( nl, Technische Hogeschool van Delft), emphasizing the academic quality of the education. Polytechnic was granted university rights and was allowed to award academic degrees. The number of students reached 450 around that time. The official opening of the new school was attended by

Queen Queen or QUEEN may refer to: Monarchy * Queen regnant, a female monarch of a Kingdom ** List of queens regnant * Queen consort, the wife of a reigning king * Queen dowager, the widow of a king * Queen mother, a queen dowager who is the mother ...

Wilhelmina of the Netherlands Wilhelmina (; Wilhelmina Helena Pauline Maria; 31 August 1880 – 28 November 1962) was Queen of the Netherlands from 1890 until her abdication in 1948. She reigned for nearly 58 years, longer than any other Dutch monarch. Her reign saw World War ...

on July 10, 1905. First

dean Dean may refer to: People * Dean (given name) * Dean (surname), a surname of Anglo-Saxon English origin * Dean (South Korean singer), a stage name for singer Kwon Hyuk * Dean Delannoit, a Belgian singer most known by the mononym Dean Titles * ...

of the newly established College was the hydraulic engineer

Jacob Kraus Jacob Kraus (14 October 1861, Groningen – 24 August 1951, The Hague) was a Dutch hydraulic engineer, professor at the University of Santiago, Chile, and at Delft University of Technology and government minister of water management Wat ...

. Corporate rights were granted to the College on June 7, 1956. Most of the university buildings during that time were located within Delft city center, with some of the buildings set on the side of the river

Schie Schie () the name for four waterways in the area of Overschie, South Holland, the Netherlands. There are the Delftse Schie, the Delfshavense Schie, the Rotterdamse Schie and the Schiedamse Schie. The existence of these four streams is the result ...

, in the Wippolder district. Student societies grew together with the university. On March 22, 1848 the first student union, Delftsch Studenten Corps was established, becoming the third corporal student society after Vindicat and Minerva in Groningen and Leiden respectively. In 1917 ''Proof Garden for Technical Plantation'' ( nl, Cultuurtuin voor Technische Gewassen) was established by

Gerrit van Iterson ''This page was created from the Dutch Wikipedia with the aid of automatic translation'' Gerrit van Iterson Jr (Roermond, August 19, 1878 – Wassenaar, January 4, 1972) was a Dutch botanist and professor who developed a mathematical approach to pl ...

, which today is known as Botanical Garden of TU Delft. In that period a first female professor,

Toos Korvezee Toos may refer to: * Toos (given name) including a list of people with the name * Tous, Iran, or Toos, an ancient city in Razavi Khorasan Province in Iran * Toos, later merged into Schönholzerswilen, a municipality in Münchwilen district, Thurga ...

, was appointed.

Delft University of Technology (1986-present)

After the end of the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, TU Delft increased its rapid academic expansion.

Studium Generale is the old customary name for a medieval university in medieval Europe. Overview There is no official definition for the term . The term ' first appeared at the beginning of the 13th century out of customary usage, and meant a place where stude ...

was established at all universities in the

, including TU Delft, to promote a free and accessible knowledge related to culture, technology, society and science. Because of the increasing number of students, in 1974 the first ''Reception Week for First Year Students'' ( nl, Ontvangst Week voor Erstejaar Studenten) was established, which became a TU Delft tradition since then. On September 1, 1986 Delft Institute of Technology officially changed its name to Delft University of Technology, underlining the quality of the education and research provided by the institution. In the course of further expansion, in 1987

Delft Top Tech Delft () is a city and municipality in the province of South Holland, Netherlands. It is located between Rotterdam, to the southeast, and The Hague, to the northwest. Together with them, it is part of both the Rotterdam–The Hague metropolitan ...

institute was established, which provided a professional master education in management for people working in the technology-related companies. On September 1, 1997 13 faculties of TU Delft were merged into 9, providing better efficiency in management of the increasing in size university. In the early 90s, because of an overwhelming outnumbering of female students by men, an initiative to increase the number of women studying at the university resulted in founding a separate

emancipation Emancipation generally means to free a person from a previous restraint or legal disability. More broadly, it is also used for efforts to procure economic and social rights, political rights or equality, often for a specifically disenfranchis ...

commission at TU Delft. As a result, ''Girls Study Technology'' ( nl, Meiden studeren techniek) days were established. In later years the responsibilities of the commission were distributed over multiple institutes. Since 2006 all buildings of the university are placed outside of the historical city center of Delft. Relatively new building of Material Sciences department was sold, later demolished in 2007, to give place for a newly built building of the

Haagse Hogeschool The Hague University of Applied Sciences ( nl, De Haagse Hogeschool), abbreviated THUAS, is a university of applied sciences with its campuses located in and around The Hague in the Randstad metropolitan region in the west of the Netherlands. Th ...

. Closer cooperation between TU Delft and Dutch universities of applied sciences resulted in physical transition of some of the institutes to Delft. In September 2009 many institutes of applied sciences from

the Hague The Hague ( ; nl, Den Haag or ) is a city and municipality of the Netherlands, situated on the west coast facing the North Sea. The Hague is the country's administrative centre and its seat of government, and while the official capital of ...

region as well as

Institute of Applied Sciences in Rijswijk An institute is an organisational body created for a certain purpose. They are often research organisations ( research institutes) created to do research on specific topics, or can also be a professional body. In some countries, institutes ca ...

, transferred to Delft, close to the location of the university, at the square between Rotterdamseweg street and Leeghwaterstraat street. In the morning of May 13, 2008 a fire started in the main building of the Faculty of Architecture. The fire soon engulfed several floors of the southern wing of the building. As fire fighters struggled to control the blaze, the fire spread throughout the building which had been evacuated when the first fire alarm went off. The damage to the building proved to be extensive. Parts of the northern wing had collapsed and it was feared that the rest of the building would follow. However, the library, considered to be one of the finest in Europe and containing several thousands of books, was undamaged. This collection also included rare maps and cartography dating to the 17th Century. Delft University employed specialists to remove the books and materials due to the structural instability of the building, and as of July 4, it has been confirmed that these books and maps have been safely removed and show no signs of damage. This is believed to be due to the fact that the fire spread upwards from the 6th Floor, whereas the library was located on the ground floor. Firefighters were also able to save the historic models and furniture, including chairs by

Gerrit Rietveld Gerrit Rietveld (24 June 1888 – 25 June 1964) was a Dutch furniture designer and architect. Early life Rietveld was born in Utrecht on 24 June 1888 as the son of a joiner. He left school at 11 to be apprenticed to his father and enrolled at ni ...

and

Le Corbusier Charles-Édouard Jeanneret (6 October 188727 August 1965), known as Le Corbusier ( , , ), was a Swiss-French architect, designer, painter, urban planner, writer, and one of the pioneers of what is now regarded as modern architecture. He was ...

. The Architecture building has been completely demolished. The former main building of the TU Delft is now used to house the faculty. It is believed the fire was started by a ruptured water pipe which short circuited a coffee machine on the 6th floor of the building. 2007 marks the moment when three Dutch technical universities, TU Delft,

TU Eindhoven The Eindhoven University of Technology ( nl, Technische Universiteit Eindhoven), abbr. TU/e, is a public technical university in the Netherlands, located in the city of Eindhoven. In 2020–21, around 14,000 students were enrolled in its BSc an ...

and

University of Twente The University of Twente (Dutch: ''Universiteit Twente''; , abbr. ) is a public technical university located in Enschede, Netherlands. The university has been placed in the top 170 universities in the world by multiple central ranking tables. ...

, established a

federation A federation (also known as a federal state) is a political entity characterized by a union of partially self-governing provinces, states, or other regions under a central federal government (federalism). In a federation, the self-governin ...

, called 3TU.

TU Delft logo

Through the course of the years the

logo A logo (abbreviation of logotype; ) is a graphic mark, emblem, or symbol used to aid and promote public identification and recognition. It may be of an abstract or figurative design or include the text of the name it represents as in a wordma ...

of TU Delft changed, as its official name did. The current

is based on three official university colors

cyan Cyan () is the color between green and blue on the visible spectrum of light. It is evoked by light with a predominant wavelength between 490 and 520 nm, between the wavelengths of green and blue. In the subtractive color system, or CMYK color ...

, black and white. Letter T bearers on top a stylized

flame A flame (from Latin ''flamma'') is the visible, gaseous part of a fire. It is caused by a highly exothermic chemical reaction taking place in a thin zone. When flames are hot enough to have ionized gaseous components of sufficient density they ...

, remembering the flame that

Prometheus In Greek mythology, Prometheus (; , , possibly meaning "forethought")Smith"Prometheus". is a Titan god of fire. Prometheus is best known for defying the gods by stealing fire from them and giving it to humanity in the form of technology, know ...

brought from

Mount Olympus Mount Olympus (; el, Όλυμπος, Ólympos, also , ) is the highest mountain in Greece. It is part of the Olympus massif near the Thermaic Gulf of the Aegean Sea, located in the Olympus Range on the border between Thessaly and Macedonia, be ...

to the people, against

Zeus Zeus or , , ; grc, Δῐός, ''Diós'', label=Genitive case, genitive Aeolic Greek, Boeotian Aeolic and Doric Greek#Laconian, Laconian grc-dor, Δεύς, Deús ; grc, Δέος, ''Déos'', label=Genitive case, genitive el, Δίας, ''D� ...

's will.

, is sometimes considered as the first ever

engineer Engineers, as practitioners of engineering, are professionals who invent, design, analyze, build and test machines, complex systems, structures, gadgets and materials to fulfill functional objectives and requirements while considering the l ...

, since he brought the knowledge to mortals about fire which they did not possess, and is an important symbol for the university. Its statue stands in the center of the newly renovated TU Delft campus, Mekelpark.

Archival videos from TU Delft History (in Dutch)

File:Opening of new testing factories for Delft University of Technology.ogv, Opening of new,

Shell Shell may refer to: Architecture and design * Shell (structure), a thin structure ** Concrete shell, a thin shell of concrete, usually with no interior columns or exterior buttresses ** Thin-shell structure Science Biology * Seashell, a hard ou ...

-funded, testing facilities at

, 9 February 1951 File:Minister Rutten opent eetgelegenheid voor studenten.ogv, Opening of cantine for

students in the

old town In a city or town, the old town is its historic or original core. Although the city is usually larger in its present form, many cities have redesignated this part of the city to commemorate its origins after thorough renovations. There are ma ...

, 22 January 1952 File:11628.11618.WEEKNUMMER592-HRE0001B0CB.ogv, Opening of new sports center at

, 29 May 1959 File:Opening studentensociëteit in Delft.ogv, Opening of new student society premises of

Virgil Publius Vergilius Maro (; traditional dates 15 October 7021 September 19 BC), usually called Virgil or Vergil ( ) in English, was an ancient Roman poet of the Augustan period. He composed three of the most famous poems in Latin literature: t ...

at former

St. Barbara Saint Barbara ( grc, Ἁγία Βαρβάρα; cop, Ϯⲁⲅⲓⲁ Ⲃⲁⲣⲃⲁⲣⲁ; ; ), known in the Eastern Orthodox Church as the Great Martyr Barbara, was an early Christian Lebanese and Greek saint and martyr. Accounts place her in t ...

monastery in Delft, 11 May 1962 File:Architect Rietveld ere-doctor Weeknummer 64-04 - Open Beelden - 31598.ogv,

receives

honoris causa An honorary degree is an academic degree for which a university (or other degree-awarding institution) has waived all of the usual requirements. It is also known by the Latin phrases ''honoris causa'' ("for the sake of the honour") or ''ad hono ...

degree from

, 15 January 1964 File:Technische Hogeschool.ogv, Development of new

campus, January 1966 File:BG_10659.ogv, Efficiency marathon for self made vehicles at

, 1 January 1979

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:History Of The Delft University Of Technology Delft University of Technology

Articles containing video clips