Description

Marble, inscribed on back: "C.N. Cantalamessa//Papotti//Roma 1873."

William and Henry Rogers--the two middle brothers in a family deeply committed to science and education--founded their first school together in 1826 in their early 20s. Two decades later, William was teaching geology at the University of Virginia and Henry, also a noted geologist, had migrated to Boston and was teaching at the new experimental Lowell Institute. Stimulated by the lively community of education reformers in Boston, the brothers wanted to try again. Henry urged his brother to write down his ideas. On March 13, 1846, William Barton Rogers hastily drafted an expansive letter to Henry outlining what became the founding plan for the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (established in 1861). The two brothers remained close until Henry's untimely death in 1866. A few years later MIT commissioned a bust of William by the Italian sculptor Camtalamessa Payotti. It is believed that Rogers in turn commissioned this second bust, most likely to recognize the importance of his brother Henry's contributions to American science and to honor the forty-year relationship that inspired and gave shape to MIT.