The Paper Science & Engineering Department was created in 1920. In the late 1940s, two out of three of the first female graduates from the New York State College of Forestry graduated with degrees in Paper Engineering.

The New York State College of Forestry was founded with Syracuse University in 1911 to address issues in the forestry industry. Students attended classes at Syracuse University until Bray Hall was finished in 1917 on the current ESF campus next to SU.