Text:

Edward A. Bouchet
Class of 1874
First African-American Ph.D. in U.S. 1876

Location: Saybrook College, 242 Elm Street (above the entryway to the Dean’s Office in the Saybrook courtyard)

Commentary:

Edward A. Bouchet was a New Haven native, having attended Hopkins school, where he graduated as valedictorian, and then Yale, where he finished sixth in his undergraduate class. Bouchet additionally earned his Ph.D. in physics from Yale and was the sixth person to receive a physics Ph.D in the United States. Bouchet was also the first black person nominated to Phi Beta Kappa. Bouchet’s father, William Francis Bouchet, was a slave of a Yale student and plantation owner but was later emancipated. He then began working as a janitor and porter at Yale while his wife did laundry for Yale students.

In the 1850s and 60s, there were only three primary schools which accepted black students in New Haven, and Bouchet attended one of these three, the Artisan Street Colored School which is now demolished but was previously located between Artizan Street and Court Street. Another called Carlisle Street School was located on Carlisle Street in the Trowbridge Square area, then called Spireworth, and the last was called the Goffe Street Special School For Colored Children between Goffe Street and Sperry Street. Bouchet’s Yale education was sponsored by Alfred Cope, board member of the Institute for Colored Youth in Philadelphia, who wanted Bouchet to teach at the Institute after graduation. This is exactly what Bouchet did, teaching science at the Institute for 26 years. He spent the rest of his life teaching science and working in high school administration as well as being an active member of the NAACP.

Bouchet returned to New Haven and passed away in 1918 at age 66. His legacy at Yale has been recognized as of late, with seminars and lecture series, the Bouchet Leadership Awards in Minority Graduate Education, and portraits in Sterling Memorial Library and the Saybrook College dining hall. Bouchet was a student before the residential college system was instituted, so he doesn’t have any official ties to Saybrook. However, according to Saybrook Head of College Thomas Near, Saybrook students, “decided to adopt him” into their college’s collection of “family portraits” which honors historical contributors to Saybrook College.

Both the inscription and the entryway to the Dean’s office were created in 2002 as a part of a Saybrook renovation. This entryway inscription started  . The firm that designed the renovation was a Boston architectural firm, Perry Dean Rogers. The inscription, along with the words, includes some leaves, which suggests the idea of growth and learning. The decision to honor Bouchet on the entryway to the Dean’s Office also demonstrates respect and reverence for Bouchet and his legacy at Yale.