Papers of William Dandridge Peck

Scope and Contents

Contains leaf impressions created by W.D. Peck in circa 1793 from trees and plants including the silver birch (Betula pendula); lemon balm (Melissa officinalis); greater celandine (Chelidonium majus); greater burdock (Arctium lappa); and horse mint (Mentha sylvestris).

Scope and Contents

Contains leaf impressions from plants and trees created by W.D. Peck in circa 1793. The specimens are not labeled with Latin or common names.

Scope and Contents

Letter from W.D. Peck to his sister, Rebecca, dated September 13, 1775, from Lancaster inquiring about her well-being, and requesting their father send linen for Peck, which he needed for new shirts.

Scope and Contents

Letter from W.D. Peck to his father, John Peck, regarding his desire to become a physician after graduating from Harvard in 1782. He writes that his undergraduate studies have in some measure prepared him for a career in medicine. But Peck also imagines his father would rather he pursue the law, a profession that was not “amusing” to him. “I find in physic that which may satisfy the inquisitive mind,” Peck explains, adding he hopes to study with Boston physician Samuel Danforth.

Scope and Contents

Letter from W.D. Peck, in Kittery, Maine, to William Jackson, dated January 14, 1798, regarding the observation and study of insects and fish. Peck mentions sharing insect specimens, and comparing fish he has examined from ponds on his family’s land to Linnean descriptions. He also writes about collections of insect and fish specimens he planned to send to Jackson.

Scope and Contents

Letter from W.D. Peck to his brother, possibly named Benjamin, from Portsmouth, New Hampshire, dated November 6, 1789. Topics include the health of the family and a visit from George Washington the previous Saturday, part of Washington’s tour of New England from October 15 to November 13, 1789. “I had the honor to be introduced to him in the evening,” Peck writes.

Scope and Contents

Document containing birth dates of W.D. Peck’s father and siblings, and the death of his grandfather, also named William, dated May 11, 1790.

Scope and Contents

Draft letter from W.D. Peck to an unnamed recipient, informing him of the death of his father, John Peck, and providing comments on his father’s background, education, and professional endeavors as a naval engineer and ship builder. He writes that he possesses the draught of his father’s ship designs, some of which were never executed; Peck was apparently attempting to sell them “to any nation that shall make it worth my while.”

Scope and Contents

Undated, unsigned address, presumably by W.D. Peck, regarding civilization and the importance of education.

Scope and Contents Letter from W.D. Peck, from Kittery, Maine, to Eliphalet Pearson (1752-1826; Harvard AB 1773), dated September 19, 1794, regarding an article on fish he discovered, which he enclosed for Pearson, the corresponding secretary to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and Hancock Professor of Hebrew and Other Oriental Languages at Harvard. Peck’s article, “Description of four remarkable fishes, taken near the Piscataqua in New Hampshire,” was published in the Memoirs of...

Scope and Contents

Letter from W.D. Peck to an unnamed recipient, dated October 6, 1794. Topics include the botanist Henry Ernest Muhlenberg (1753-1815) and the Dipus sagitta (three-toed jerboa), a type of rodent Peck describes in detail; he writes that he was in possession a pair of them, and was able to observe them before they died. He also discusses various plant specimens.

Scope and Contents

Fragment, dated October 10, 1795, with notes or excerpts from published works in Latin about plants.

Scope and Contents

Includes unlabeled, undated zoological drawings by W.D. Peck, and a letter from his son, W.D. Peck, Jr., to Harvard College Librarian Thaddeus Mason Harris (1768-1842; Harvard AB 1787), dated May 21, 1835, regarding the transfer of his father's papers to the library.

Scope and Contents

Contains photographs of W.D. Peck's home and his granddaughter, Mary Dandridge Peck, and notes by D. Foster Taylor from his research into the lives of John Peck and W.D. Peck in 1935; and several original letters of the Peck family, dated 1837-1838.

Scope and Contents

Letters from Mary Dandridge Peck to Mrs. Asa Gray [Jane Lathrop Loring Gray, 1821-1909], dated 1895, and correspondence and notes by Thomas Barbour related to his research for a biography of W.D. Peck, dated 1935-1937.