Architect Robert Robinson Taylor '92 arrived at Tuskegee Institute in Alabama during the fall or winter of 1892. He served as instructor in architectural and architectural drawing and architect at Tuskegee until 1899. In a talk at MIT's 50th anniversary, Taylor describes his early experience as an instructor:

[T]he mechanical work was largely in the hands of men trained in the old way, who did their work usually without definite plans or drawings. Introducing plans, blue-prints and specifications as a part of every mechanical job, however small, and instructing the students in making and using drawings, led to changes which inevitably follow newer and better ways of doing things.

Robert R. Taylor, "The Scientific Development of the Negro," 1911