Ichabod Washburn (1798–1868) was an American
Congregational deacon and
industrialist
A business magnate, also known as a tycoon, is a person who has achieved immense wealth through the ownership of multiple lines of enterprise. The term characteristically refers to a powerful entrepreneur or investor who controls, through perso ...
from
Worcester County, Massachusetts. His
financial endowment
A financial endowment is a legal structure for managing, and in many cases indefinitely perpetuating, a pool of financial, real estate, or other investments for a specific purpose according to the will of its founders and donors. Endowments are o ...
s led to the naming of Washburn College, now
Washburn University in
Topeka, Kansas and the foundation of
Worcester Polytechnic Institute in
Worcester, Massachusetts.
Washburn became an
apprentice in a
Leicester, Massachusetts blacksmith shop at the age of sixteen. He attended
Leicester Academy
Leicester Academy was founded on March 23, 1784, when the Act of Incorporation for Leicester Academy was passed by the Massachusetts General Court as a private, state chartered institution. The charter issued to the Academy bears the bold signatur ...
with his distant relative
Emory Washburn
Emory Washburn (February 14, 1800 – March 18, 1877) was a United States lawyer, politician, and historian. He was Governor of Massachusetts for one term (from 1854 to 1855), and served for many years on the faculty of Harvard Law School. Hi ...
(later
Governor of Massachusetts) and Stephen Salisbury II, both of whom would many years later help in the founding of Worcester Polytechnic Institute.
By 1865, Washburn was co-proprietor (with his son-in-law Philip Moen) of Washburn and Moen Manufacturing Company, the world's largest
wire mill. The company manufactured
piano wire,
crinoline and supports for
hoop skirts, wire for fences and other similar products.
Worcester Polytechnic Institute
Washburn was interested in setting up a
vocational school for
mechanics and wrote:
I have long been satisfied that a course of instruction might be adopted in the education of apprentices to mechanical employments, whereby moral
A moral (from Latin ''morālis'') is a message that is conveyed or a lesson to be learned from a story or event. The moral may be left to the hearer, reader, or viewer to determine for themselves, or may be explicitly encapsulated in a maxim. A ...
and intellect
In the study of the human mind, intellect refers to, describes, and identifies the ability of the human mind to reach correct conclusions about what is true and what is false in reality; and how to solve problems. Derived from the Ancient Gree ...
ual training might be united with the processes by which the arts of mechanism as well as skill in the use and adaptation of tools and machinery
A machine is a physical system using power to apply forces and control movement to perform an action. The term is commonly applied to artificial devices, such as those employing engines or motors, but also to natural biological macromolecule ...
are taught, so as to elevate our mechanics as a class in the scale of intelligence and influence, and add to their personal independence and happiness, while it renders them better and more useful citizen
Citizenship is a "relationship between an individual and a state to which the individual owes allegiance and in turn is entitled to its protection".
Each state determines the conditions under which it will recognize persons as its citizens, and ...
s, and so more like our Divine Master, whose youth combined the conversation
Conversation is interactive communication between two or more people. The development of conversational skills and etiquette is an important part of socialization. The development of conversational skills in a new language is a frequent focus ...
s of the learned with the duties of a mechanic's son, and whose ideas and teachings now underlie the civilization of the world.
Along with
John Boynton, another prominent Worcester industrialist, he founded the Worcester County Free Institute of Industrial Science in 1865. Its name was later changed to Worcester Polytechnic Institute. The collaboration between Boynton, who wanted to teach science, and Washburn, who wanted to teach vocational skills, led to the university's philosophy of "theory and practice."
Washburn suffered a paralyzing stroke in February 1868 and died on December 31 of that year, only a month after the Institute opened and before the completion of the shop building. Boynton died before the first class entered in 1868. Their contributions to WPI in its infancy are memorialized by Boynton Hall and Washburn Shops, the first two buildings on the campus.
Washburn University
Lincoln College, established in 1865 at
Topeka, Kansas, changed its name in 1868 to Washburn college after receiving a bequest of $25,000 from Ichabod Washburn's estate.
[Washburn University](_blank)
Washburn College
Washburn University (WU) is a public university in Topeka, Kansas, United States. It offers undergraduate and graduate programs, as well as professional programs in law and business. Washburn has 550 faculty members, who teach more than 6,100 u ...
adopted a variation of the Washbourne arms as its emblem, substituting the school colors for the tinctures of the arms. Since becoming a university, however, Washburn has abandoned use of the family arms. Instead, the university now employs a stylized "W" as the emblem of the institution. The school mascot, "The Ichabod", is still in use.
"The Ichabod" existed only in name until 1938, when alumnus (and later prominent
graphic artist
A graphic designer is a professional within the graphic design and graphic arts industry who assembles together images, typography, or motion graphics to create a piece of design. A graphic designer creates the graphics primarily for published, p ...
)
Bradbury Thompson
J. Bradbury Thompson (March 25, 1911 – November 1, 1995) was an American graphic designer and art director known for his work designing magazines and postage stamps.
Early life and education
J. Bradbury Thompson was born on March 25, 1911 in To ...
created the studious-looking,
tailcoat-wearing figure the university uses today. The athletic teams are nicknamed "the Ichabods".
References
External links
Ichabod Washburn Papers at the WPI Manuscript Collection
{{DEFAULTSORT:Washburn, Ichabod
1798 births
1868 deaths
American manufacturing businesspeople
Businesspeople from Massachusetts
Leicester Academy alumni
People from Leicester, Massachusetts
Washburn University people
Worcester Polytechnic Institute
University and college founders
19th-century American businesspeople