Edward Bouchet entered Yale College in 1870 and was the first African American to graduate Yale College in 1874.  Bouchet continued the study of graduate physics at Yale, where he was awarded a Ph.D. in Physics in 1876. Bouchet was the first African American to earn a doctorate degree from an American university.  Upon graduation from Yale, Dr. Bouchet taught chemistry and physics for twenty-six years at the Institute for Colored Youth in Philadelphia, PA.

The Institute was a Quaker institution that had earned a reputation for high academic standards since its founding in 1837.  

Dr. Bouchet resigned in 1902 when the Institute's college preparatory program was discontinued "at the height of the Du Bois-Washington controversy over industrial vs. collegiate education." (Source) The school was moved to Cheney, PA as a vocational and teacher-training school; the name was changed in later years to Cheney State College. 


From 1902-1903, Bouchet served as a science teacher at the Sumner High School in St. Louis, Missouri, in their college preparatory program.. From 193-194 he served as business manager of the Provident Hospital, St. Louis and U.S.. Inspector of Customs at the Louisiana Purchase Exposition (1904-1905). Between 1905 and 1908, Bouchet was director of academics at St. Paul's Normal and Industrial School in Lawrenceville, Virginia (later renamed, St. Paul's College). In 1908 he was appointed principal of the Lincoln High School, Galipolis, Ohio, until 1913, when he joined the faculty of Bishop College in Marshall, Texas. Dr. Bouchet retired from college teaching in 1916 due to illness, where he returned to New Haven.