Edward Bouchet | |
|---|---|
 Bouchet at Yale,c. 1874 | |
| Born | (1852-09-15)September 15, 1852 New Haven, Connecticut, U.S. |
| Died | October 28, 1918(1918-10-28) (aged 66) New Haven, Connecticut, U.S. |
| Education | Yale University (PhD) |
| Occupations | |
Edward Alexander Bouchet (September 15, 1852 – October 28, 1918) was an Americanphysicist and educator and was the firstAfrican American to earn aPh.D. from any American university, completing hisdissertation in physics atYale University in 1876. On the basis of his academic record he was elected toPhi Beta Kappa society. In 1874, he became one of the first African Americans to graduate from Yale College.[a][4]
Although Bouchet was elected toPhi Beta Kappa along with other members of the Yale class of 1874, the official induction did not take place until 1884, when the Yale chapter was reorganized after thirteen years of inactivity. Because of the circumstances, Bouchet was not the first African American elected to Phi Beta Kappa, as many historical accounts state; that honor belongs toGeorge Washington Henderson (University of Vermont). Bouchet was also among the first 20 Americans (of any race) to receive a Ph.D. in physics and was the sixth to earn a Ph.D. in physics from Yale.[5][6] TheBouchet Graduate Honor Society was co-founded by Yale University andHoward University on September 15, 2005, in commemoration of Bouchet's birthday.[7][8][9][10]
Edward Bouchet was born at home inNew Haven,Connecticut to parents William Francis Bouchet and Susan (Cooley) Bouchet in 1852.[11] His father had been brought to New Haven fromCharleston,South Carolina in 1824 as the enslaved valet of a young plantation owner and Yale student. William Francis was emancipated by his owner when the latter graduated from Yale, and he then went to work as ajanitor and later porter at Yale, and served as a deacon of theTemple Street Church, the oldest black church in the city.[12][13] Edward's mother took in the laundry of Yale students.[12] He was the youngest of four children and the only male.[6] Two of his sisters were Fanny Bouchet Turner and Georgie Bouchet.[11]
During the 1850s and 1860s, there were only three schools in New Haven that accepted black children. Bouchet was enrolled in theArtisan Street Colored School, which had only one teacher, Sarah Wilson. She nurtured Bouchet's academic abilities and aspirations. He attended the New Haven High School from 1866 to 1868 and thenHopkins School from 1868 to 1870, where he was namedvaledictorian.[6]
Word of Bouchet's talents reachedPhiladelphia and Alfred Cope of the Society of Friends andInstitute for Colored Youth. Cope wanted Bouchet to teach at the Center after finishing his studies and paid for his time at Yale in order to facilitate this partnership.[14] Bouchet ranked sixth in his class on graduation from Yale.[11] Bouchet's doctoral thesis centered on measuring the refractive indices of various glasses.[15]
After earning his PhD, Bouchet was unable to find a university teaching or research facility position due toracial discrimination.[12] He moved to Philadelphia in 1876 and took a position at theInstitute for Colored Youth (nowCheyney University of Pennsylvania), where he taughtphysics andchemistry for the next 26 years.[6] He resigned in 1902 at the height of theW. E. B. Du Bois-Booker T. Washington controversy over the need for an industrial versus collegiate education for black people. A new all-white board preferred industrial education and eliminated the Institute's collegiate program.[16]
Bouchet spent the next 14 years holding a variety of jobs around the country. Between 1905 and 1908, he was director of academics atSt. Paul's Normal and Industrial School inLawrenceville,Virginia (laterSt. Paul's College). He was then principal and teacher at Lincoln High School inGallipolis,Ohio, from 1908 to 1913, whenarteriosclerosis forced him to retire.
Upon retirement, Bouchet moved back to New Haven. He died there in his childhood home at 94 Bradley Street in 1918 after a six-week illness caused by high blood pressure.[6][11][15] He never married and had no children.[6] He was buried in an unmarked grave at New Haven'sEvergreen Cemetery. In 1998, Yale University placed a headstone on Bouchet's grave.[12]
TheAmerican Physical Society (APS Physics) confers theEdward A. Bouchet Award on some of the nation's outstanding physicists for their contribution to physics.[17]
TheEdward Bouchet Abdus Salam Institute (EBASI)[18] was founded in 1988 by the lateNobel Laureate ProfessorAbdus Salam under the direction of the founding chairman Charles S. Brown.[19] The current chair of EBASI is ProfessorMilton Dean Slaughter.
In 2005, Yale andHoward University founded the Edward A. Bouchet Graduate Honor Society in his name.
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