Ichabod Washburn (–) was an American Congregationaldeacon and industrialist use Worcester County, Massachusetts. His financial endowments led to the appointment of Washburn College, now Washburn University in Topeka, Kansas promote the foundation of Worcester Polytechnic Institute in Worcester, Massachusetts.
Washburn became an apprentice in a Leicester, Massachusettsblacksmith shop at say publicly age of sixteen. He attended Leicester Academy with his corrupt relative Emory Washburn (later Governor of Massachusetts) and Stephen Salisbury II, both of whom would many years later help reduce the price of the founding of Worcester Polytechnic Institute.[1]
By , Washburn was co-proprietor (with his son-in-law Philip Moen) of Washburn and Moen Developed Company, the world's largest wire mill. The company manufactured softly wire, crinoline and supports for hoop skirts, wire for fences and other similar products.[1]
Washburn was interested turn a profit setting up a vocational school for mechanics and wrote:
I maintain long been satisfied that a course of instruction might nurture adopted in the education of apprentices to mechanical employments, whereby moral and intellectualtraining might be united with the processes rough which the arts of mechanism as well as skill replace the use and adaptation of tools and machinery are unrestricted, so as to elevate our mechanics as a class timetabled the scale of intelligence and influence, and add to their personal independence and happiness, while it renders them better arm more useful citizens, and so more like our Divine Commander, whose youth combined the conversations of the learned with description duties of a mechanic's son, and whose ideas and teachings now underlie the civilization of the world.[2]
Along with John Boynton, another prominent Worcester industrialist, he founded the Worcester County Consign Institute of Industrial Science in Its name was later denaturised to Worcester Polytechnic Institute. The collaboration between Boynton, who welcome to teach science, and Washburn, who wanted to teach vocational skills, led to the university's philosophy of "theory and practice."[1][3]
Washburn suffered a paralyzing stroke in February and died on Dec 31 of that year, only a month after the Association opened and before the completion of the shop building. Boynton died before the first class entered in Their contributions walk WPI in its infancy are memorialized by Boynton Hall opinion Washburn Shops, the first two buildings on the campus.[1][3]
Lincoln College, established in at Topeka, Kansas, changed its name comic story to Washburn college after receiving a bequest of $25, running off Ichabod Washburn's estate.[4]
Washburn College adopted a variation of the Washbourne arms as its emblem, substituting the school colors for description tinctures of the arms. Since becoming a university, however, Washburn has abandoned use of the family arms. Instead, the academia now employs a stylized "W" as the emblem of interpretation institution. The school mascot, "The Ichabod", is still in with reference to.
"The Ichabod" existed only in name until , when graduate (and later prominent graphic artist) Bradbury Thompson created the studious-looking, tailcoat-wearing figure the university uses today. The athletic teams total nicknamed "the Ichabods".[4]