Original quarto, Volume 3, 1828-1829

The third volume of the second series of College Papers contains original correspondence, financial and legal documents, memoranda, and committee and faculty reports, dated May 1828 to September 1829, spanning the tenures of acting president Henry Ware, Sr., and president Josiah Quincy, treasurer Ebenezer Francis, and steward Charles Saunders. Francis Calley Gray, the first secretary of Harvard Corporation, is a frequent correspondent.

A number of letters concern Ware’s service as president pro tempore of Harvard (April 1828-June 1829), performed concurrently with his duties as Hollis Professor of Divinity, the appointment of Boston politician Josiah Quincy as president, and Quincy’s inauguration on June 2, 1829. There are also papers related to the reorganization of Harvard Law School, which entailed Asahel Stearns’ resignation as University Professor of Law and head of the graduate law program, the endowment of the Dane Professorship of Law, and the appointments of Supreme Court Justice Joseph Story as the first Dane Professor and John Hooker Ashmun as Royall Professor of Law. The volume further contains correspondence, reports, and other documents respecting administration of Harvard Divinity School (then known as the Theological School), including the establishment of a professorship of Pulpit Eloquence and the Pastoral Care.

Other topics are gifts and bequests to Harvard from benefactors like Ward Nicholas Boylston and Christopher Gore; curriculum; books received and loaned by the library; proposed modifications to University regulations and financial practices, including parent notifications required under College Law 52, and the form of term bills issued to students; management of College lands; changes to the statutes of the Bowdoin Prize, as well as dissertation topics and prize winners; disorder and damage to the campus by students; Commencement Day activities and conferral of degrees; appointments to the Boylston Medical Committee and awards of Boylston prizes; management of the Hopkins fund; appointments and resignations of faculty; salaries and duties of College officers and staff, such as the proctors and janitor; student financial aid; funding for monuments to Harvard benefactors William Stoughton and John Harvard; and construction and repairs to College buildings.

The volume contains a few items that were regularly submitted to the Corporation: College Treasurer Francis’ monthly statements of cash accounts, itemizing outgoing and incoming payments; the list of candidates to received the Doctor of Medicine degree, sent by Walter Channing, the dean of the medical faculty; and Frederick Baylies’ annual reports on his missionary work to Native Americans in Martha’s Vineyard and surrounding areas, which include data on each Indian school he conducted.

In addition, several letters and papers document the College Library’s loan of various maps to the United States commission involved in negotiations with Great Britain over the disputed boundary between Maine and British Canada.

Item numbers were assigned by the archivist. An index in chronological order at the back of the volume refers to page numbers for each item.