Edward Charles Pickering, 1846-1919, S.B. 1865, Lawrence Scientific School, joined the staff of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1866. He was assistant professor of physics, 1867-1868, and Thayer Professor of Physics, 1868-1877. From 1875 to 1877, he organized and directed the first laboratory for instruction in physics in America, a project initially proposed by MIT's founder, William Barton Rogers, in his "Scope and Plan" for the Institute. In 1877 Pickering became the director of the Harvard College Astronomical Laboratory. His research included photometric investigations of the magnitude of stars, visual, photovisual, and photographic. Just before his death he completed the cataloging of every known star, about 220,000 stars, classified with special reference to their physical qualities as determined by their spectra.