Overview: The records in this collection document the activities of Jacob Bigelow as Rumford Professor and Lecturer on the Application of Science to the Useful Arts at Harvard from 1816 to 1827. The correspondence, reports, and plan of lectures in this collection provide an overview of Bigelow's establishment and administration of the Rumford Apparatus, a collection of scientific instruments and working models designed to promote the practical sciences and demonstrate the usefulness of science to...