[11] A board of seven directors incorporated Wentworth Institute on April 5, 1904, as a school "to furnish education in the mechanical arts".

[12] The directors spent several years investigating the educational needs of the community, increased the endowment, and reached a settlement with Wentworth's daughter, who had contested his will.

[13][14][15] The campus was established in Boston's Back Bay Fens and Arthur L. Williston was the first principal of the college.

[19] Zorica Pantic was the first female engineer to head an institute of technology in higher education in the United States.

Students enrolled for full-time study may live in one of seven residence halls near the main campus buildings.

In 2023, Jared M. Pierce made history at Wentworth by become the first two-time All American, in Track & Field, from the university.