Prior to gaining renown as an industrialist, banker, inventor, and land developer — before anyone referred to her as the “First Lady of Gearing” or the “Marie Curie of Machine Tooling” — Kate Gleason was a Cornellian known as “Sibley Kate.”
Among her fellow first-year engineering students in Sibley Hall, then home to Cornell’s Sibley College of Mechanical Engineering and Mechanic Arts, Gleason certainly stood out. Upon enrolling in 1884, she had become the first woman to ever study engineering at Cornell.
“We are all tremendously proud to celebrate the 140th anniversary of Kate Gleason breaking this barrier, as well as all of the women engineers and leaders who have subsequently been educated at Cornell Engineering,” said Lynden Archer, the Joseph Silbert Dean of Engineering. “This milestone speaks to the foresight of Cornell’s founders in making inclusion a fundamental and enduring part of our institutional mission, as well as to the courage and determination of Gleason and those who followed in her footsteps.”
Genuine commitment to "...any person...any study"
In 1868, at the opening of the university that bears his name, Ezra Cornell famously declared that he “would found an institution where any person can find instruction in any study.” The year before, he had written that his intent was to “have girls educated in the university as well as boys so that they may have the same opportunity.” 150 years after the university opened, and 134 years after Gleason arrived as a student, Cornell Engineering's undergraduate population reached gender parity in 2018. This achievement continues to have deep resonance for many community members, even those who did not attend Cornell as students.
“This history is important to me, because it makes me feel like the commitment to 'any person...any study' is genuine," said Susan Daniel, the director of the Robert Frederick School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, who is among the largest cohort of women faculty leaders in the college's history. "I want to be in an authentic place that truly cares about those things. At the end of the day, this place is about changing young people’s lives and giving all students the tools they need to be successful.”
Honoring Gleason's legacy — together
It is difficult, if not impossible, to fully capture Gleason’s legacy. The following collection of stories gathers just a fraction of the current and former Cornell Engineering undergraduates, graduates, and postdoctoral scholars who have come through Cornell Engineering over the last 140 years.
It is a list that we intend to grow — with your help. All are invited to recommend additions, including sharing their own stories, via the submission button at the very bottom of the page.
