Dundee Technical College and School of Art was originally established as Dundee Technical Institute in 1888 under the Baxter Bequest. Sir David Baxter of Kilmaron bequeathed £20,000 for the establishment of a mechanics institute in Dundee for "the education of boys and young men in those branches of learning necessary or useful for working mechanics and other craftsmen".

After an initial test run of an initial syllabus under the administration of University College Dundee in 1887, courses were offered under its official name in 1888 in technical subjects, such as building construction. Later courses in jute manufacture, electricity, and telegraphy followed, and provision was also made for providing applied art classes as well.

The Institute was initially established in a building within the precinct of University College Dundee in Smalls Wynd, but the accommodation proved insufficient , and by 1901/02 rooms were also used in the YMCA and at Dundee High School. In 1907 work began on constructing new premises on West Bell Street, and this was completed in 1911, at which point the institution was re-named the Dundee Technical College and School of Art.

It carried on under this name until 1933 when a new scheme of management formed an art college under the Duncan of Jordanstone Bequest and incorporated it into a governing body administering it and the technical college, forming the Dundee Institute of Art and Technology.