A New Name for a Top School: Caltech

A school that began modestly in a Pasadena warehouse in 1891 officially changed its name to reflect its new mission. What had once been Amos G. Throop University -- teaching trades, with the motto “Learn to Do by Doing” -- became the California Institute of Technology. Under the direction of astronomer George Ellery Hale, the institute began to shift its focus to science and research. Hale enticed two leading scientists to join him in Pasadena: renowned physicist Robert A. Millikan and chemist Arthur Amos Noyes, former president of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Together, the three turned Caltech into a world-class academic institution.