－ 143 － From Gentlemen to Technologists: “Who Went to College? ” in the United States, 1800-1890

Higher education currently attracts much attention concerning its curriculum, its student body, or its finances in many countries. However, these issues have long been of concern as well since 1820s. This paper focuses the first two issues in nineteenth-century America. During this period, old colleges such as Harvard, Yale, and Columbia faced tremendous changes while many institutions, including newly established state universities, were opening scientific, agricultural, and mechanical-arts schools. The purpose of this paper is primarily to describe changes in higher education and contemporary society during this period. Drawing on data from the census, historical statistics, and old documents of 1800 to 1890, it attempts to clarify “what kind of youth” studied “what subjects ” “for what purpose ” in colleges. The findings of our research demonstrate that a very small proportion of white males studied liberal arts to be “remembered ” as “gentlemen” in 1800, while a much larger number of mixed youth studied a variety of newly-developing disciplines, including agriculture and engineering, in order to be “useful ” as “technologists ” in the expanding American society. This paper also suggests that the substantial shift from gentlemen to technologists may be understood in terms of the two conflicting ideas of equity/democracy and excellence/reason, each of which has been demanded, utilized, and debated in higher education institutions over the course of history