CUNY Academic Works

This collection consists of approximately 135 photographs from the New York Trade School. Most of the material dates from the 1940s and 1950s. The New York Trade School was founded in 1881 by Richard Tylden Auchmuty. In 1882, J. Pierpont Morgan contributed a significant endowment to the school and that same year the school was granted a charter by the University of the State of New York to operate as a technical school. To keep pace with technological changes following World War II, the school sought to become a technical institute. In 1961, the school's charter was amended to reflect this and the New York Trade School was renamed the Vorhees Technical Institute after the leading industrialist Enders M. Vorhees. Despite the change, the school ran into financial difficulties a result of rising costs by declining enrollments. By 1971 it was decided that the New York City College of Technology should take over the school. The resulting merger is how City Tech acquired this collection.