Overview:

The faculty reports in this collection provide an overview of the classical instruction given to students at Harvard in the early nineteenth century by John Snelling Popkin, Eliot Professor of Greek Literature from 1825 to 1827. The reports also document Popkin's apprehension about the introduction of modern languages to the college curriculum (ca. 1825) and the impact this new curriculum might have on the standing of classical studies at Harvard.

Overview: John Snelling Popkin (1771-1852), minister and scholar, served as College Professor of Greek at Harvard from 1815 to 1826 and Eliot Professor of Greek Literature from 1826 to 1833. The John Snelling Popkin personal archive consists of a letter to Reverend William Mason of Castine, Maine, dated February 13, 1801, with a note from the item's donor in 1928, and a folder of assorted papers, dated 1815-1896, including a small amount of Popkin’s correspondence and business records, an...