Prelude: 1849 to 1936

1849: the New Britain Normal School (NBNS) opens.

1884: Charles A. Kunou introduces a manual training curriculum for elementary-education majors at NBNS.

1933: New Britain Normal School becomes Teachers College of Connecticut (TCC). Men first admitted.

1934: The TCC catalog includes a 128-credit "tentative four-year industrial arts curriculum."

1935: the Spring Conference of the Connecticut Industrial Arts Association is held on May 24-25 at TCC; an announcement is made on Saturday, May 25, 1935, that TCC would begin offering I.A. courses the following school year. William E. Warner is the keynote speaker. TCC would host the conference continuously until 1968, when the old Memorial Hall was scheduled to be razed.

1936: TCC becomes the first (and is still the only) Connecticut institution to offer teaching degrees in industrial arts. Mr. Raymond W. Phipps is named first department chair; the department is housed in a room on the second floor of the Administration Building (now Davidson Hall), but at least some shop courses were probably taught at nearby high schools.

Beginnings: 1936-1946

1937-38 to 1945-46: An average of seven students graduate per year.

1936: Fifteen students enroll in the I.A. program; Industrial Arts Club founded.

1937: A second I.A. room is added across the hall.

1938: The first five I.A. teachers graduate from TCC. All were enrolled as freshmen in 1934, before the I.A. program became official.

1939: Facilities expand to include a temporary building for power mechanics and electricity

1940: A Vocational Industrial Education program is added; from 1941 to 1947, Vocational Education is elevated to become a "division" of TCC.

1941-1945: At least three young professors are granted military leaves of absence. Model Airplane Construction, a new course, is required of all majors from 1943 to 1947.

1943: Three women are among the program's 15 graduates. Another woman completes the program in 1947.

1946: Mr. Phipps retires; Dr. Paul N. Wenger becomes department chair.

Faculty appointed from 1936 to 1946:

Raymond W. Phipps (1936 - 1946)

John A. Whitesel (1937 - 1941)

• left to become professor at Miami U.(Ohio)

• Later, president of the A.I.A.A.

E. Burnham Dunton (1941 - 1944)

Donald E. Phippin (1941 - 1944)

Richard Savage (1943 - 1944)

Robert E. Bateson (1943 - 1964)

Paul N. Wenger (1945 - 1972)

William F. Riley (1945 - 1974)

Thomas I. Monteleone (1946 - 1965)

• left to become professor at Gorham State College (now U. of Southern Maine).

William D. Chatfield (1946 - 1956)

• reappointed in 1968

Postwar Expansion: 1947 to 1965

1946-47 to 1964-65: average of about 25 graduates per year.

1947: All facilities moved to East Hall, a temporary building

1947: A revised I.A. curriculum requires students to take a two-course sequence in each of six areas (Drafting, Woodworking, Metalworking, General Shop, Graphic Arts, and Power Mechanics), plus third courses in two areas of the student's choice. This curriculum, with occasional alterations, will be in effect for the next twenty years.

1949: A chapter (αη) of the Epsilon Pi Tau fraternity is founded at TCC.

1950: Forty-four graduates become certified to teach; this is the largest number ever.

1950: In September, the University of Connecticut begins offering a graduate program in industrial education.

1953: I.A. facilities relocated to Henry Barnard Hall.

1956: I.E. 201, Problems in Teaching Industrial Education, is the first graduate course offered by the department. The teacher is Dr. Bateson.

1961: Industrial Arts Library is opened on the first floor of Barnard. Smoking is permitted.

Faculty appointed from 1947 to 1965:

Alfred A. Caputo (1948 - 1977)

David B. Merrill (1956 - 199?)

Russell Tupper (1957 - 1967)

• Became Dean of CCSC's Extension College, 1967

Sanford E. Rich (1959 - 1981)

• joined the IT faculty in 1981

• retired in 2007 after teaching at CCSU for 48 years

Norman Bourque (1961 - 1990)