The laborers and scholars with books by the anvil in the picture symbolize the educational idea put forward by the founders of MIT, such as william barton rogers, in 1860: "For commercial interests, for culture itself and for mass education, real cultural education should be well combined with industrial research." The motto "Mens et Manus" written in Latin under the pedestal between them (learn to use both hands and brain) and the three-line word "Science and Technology" on the pedestal also reflect MIT's view of combining knowledge with practical science.