Amherst College Early History Collection, 1815-1991 (bulk 1815-1849)
General International Standard for Archival Description
Amherst College Archives and Special Collections
Finding aid encoded using Perl scripts and edited in XMetal 2.0. Encoded by Sarang Gopalakrishnan. 2003-06-24
Encoded Archival Description
Encoded Archival Description (EAD) Version 2002
collection
Amherst College Early History Collection
Creation of Amherst College Early History Collection
Time of Creation of Amherst College Early History Collection
2 records storage boxes, 5 archives boxes, 3 half archives boxes, 1 oversize flat box, 1 bound volume
Biographical History for: Amherst College Early History Collection
Historical Note Before Amherst College received its charter from the Massachusetts State Legislature on February 18, 1825, it had been conceived out of the previously existing Amherst Academy, which opened in 1814 and received a Massachusetts charter in 1816. The role of the Academy in the inception of Amherst College is unambiguously described as follows by Frederick Tuckerman on page 27 of his definitive history, Amherst Academy, 1814-1861 (1929): The founders of Amherst Academy were also the founders of Amherst College. The College owes its origin to the pious zeal of certain members of the Board of Trustees of the Academy, and the records of the Academy were the records of the College during the first four years of its existence, or until the granting of the charter in 1825. As the quotation indicates, the records of Amherst Academy begin earlier than Amherst College and extend beyond the date of the granting of its charter. Their placement, near but not of, what follows is indicative of the somewhat non-linear relationship between the two. Amherst Academy opened December 6, 1814, and was incorporated February 13, 1816, to provide education for children of both sexes at a level preparatory for collegiate instruction. Students who attended Amherst Academy include Mary Lyon (founder of Mount Holyoke College), Emily Dickinson and Helen Hunt Jackson. Amherst Academy closed in 1861, and the site was sold to the town of Amherst, which erected the Amity Street public school on it. The founding of Amherst College arose neither from the visionary leadership of one or two wealthy benefactors, nor from any real encouragement from the state. Rather, it was very much a communal enterprise based on local citizens' enthusiasm for education. At the annual meeting of the trustees of Amherst Academy in November 1817, Colonel Rufus Graves presented a plan for a charitable foundation in the Academy to give free instruction to "indigent young men of promising talents and hopeful piety, who shall manifest a desire to obtain a liberal education with the sole view to the Christian ministry." The following year, Graves proposed a much more ambitious plan for a college, beginning with "the raising and managing of a permanent charitable fund as the basis of a Classical institution for the education of indigent young men of piety and talents for the Christian ministry." This was the origin of the Charity Fund, the endowment that was essentially the foundation of Amherst College. $50,000 was to be raised by subscription. Monetary contributions both large and small were received from the citizens of Amherst and the surrounding towns. As a site for the new college, a ten-acre plot of land was transferred to the Trustees by Colonel Elijah Dickinson, an Amherst selectman and member of First Church, in a deed dated May 15, 1818. On this land, which became the nucleus for the future land acquisition for the campus, the cornerstone of the college's first building (now known as South College) was laid on August 9, 1820. On May 8, 1821, the trustees of Amherst Academy elected Rev. Zephaniah Swift Moore, then president of Williams College, as president of the "Collegiate Charity Institution" (as the incipient college was known) and appointed him professor of theology and moral philosophy. By the summer of 1821 the new college was forming a faculty and preparing to admit students to any of four classes. Inauguration of for the new president took place on September 18, 1821 in the First Parish Meeting House. Forty-seven students matriculated into four separate classes in that first term, including fifteen former Williams College students who were loyal to Zephaniah Swift Moore and followed him from Williamstown. For the first few years of its operation, the institution was known as "The Collegiate Institution, Amherst, Mass." The catalogue of October 1825 first bore the name "Amherst College" - named not after Lord Jeffery Amherst but after the academy from which it originated and the town in which it was located.
Scope and Contents of the Collection Printed material, legal documents, financial records, correspondence and other papers documenting the history of Amherst Academy, its Charity Fund, and the resulting inception and founding of Amherst College as an institution for the education of "indigent young men of promising talents and hopeful piety." The collection brings together from disparate sources the early founding documents of the College from its inception in 1817 to its securing of a Massachusetts charter in 1825 through to its gradual institutional stability in the latter 19th century. Printed material includes early circulars and catalogues of both Amherst College Academy and Amherst College. Papers of several 19th century trustees of the College are also included.
Universities and colleges--Massachusetts--Amherst--History--Sources.
lcsh
Amherst Academy (Amherst, Mass.)--History--Sources.
Amherst College--History--Sources.
series
Series 1: AMHERST ACADEMY, 1815-1995
Series 1, AMHERST ACADEMY, includes printed material (including circulars and catalogues), legal documents, financial records, notebooks, and miscellaneous records. Notebooks include Noah Webster's notes for the history of Amherst Academy and Amherst College, and records of two student organizations, the Franklin Society and the Platonic Society.
General folder (1 of 2): Clippings; photo at front of folder
General folder (2 of 2): Misc. manuscripts, songs, certificates, etc.
Copy of Noah Webster's notes for the history of Amherst Academy/Amherst College. Ms. Notebook.
Circulars 1827, 1832
Laws (2 copies) 1827
Financial records (ledger) 1837-1894
Exhibitions (programs) (Dates listed on folder) 1817-1849
Catalogues 1826-1839
Catalogues 1840
Student societies of Amherst Academy/General folder
Student societies of Amherst Academy/Franklin Society
Student societies of Amherst Academy/Platonic Society
Hitchcock Memorabilia volume: original covers
Hitchcock Memorabilia volume: original notes, table of contents; also folder listing made when volume was disbound
Records (ledger) 1815-1981
"Trustees of Amherst Academy, 1928-1978: An Abstract of Their Records to Supplement Frederick Tuckerman's Amherst Academy." 18 pp. typescript (photocopy), 2 copies [1978?]
Frederick Tuckerman correspondence regarding publication of his book Amherst Academy bulk 1929
Financial ledger 1893-1929
Check register 1914-1929
Treasurer's reports 1915-1921
Records (mostly financial) 1914-1927
Records 1929
Records 1928-1930
Records 1931-1936
Records 1937-1945
Records 1944-1948
Records 1951-1959
Records 1960-1967
Records 1968-1982
Records 1982-1989
Records 1990-1991
Records 1992-1993
Records 1994-1995
Amherst Academy catalogues printed as broadsides, 1816 (unbound); in bound volume: 1817, 1818, 1821-25. Inside back cover: 9 legal size folders containing deeds of land relating to Amherst Academy, 1821-1824 (listed on label). 1816-1825
Series 2: INCEPTION AND FOUNDING OF AMHERST COLLEGE, 1818-1891 (bulk 1818-1825)
Series 2, INCEPTION AND FOUNDING OF AMHERST COLLEGE, theoretically ends with the granting of the Charter in 1825. This section is subdivided into four series: Sub-series A: General Files, 1818-1824Sub-series B: Charity Fund, 1818-1908Sub-series C: Amherst Collegiate Institution/A Charter for Amherst College, 1823-1825Sub-series D: The Charter, 1825-1891 Notes in this finding aid explain further the details of the arrangement, and the decision to include materials later than 1825, where appropriate. Those Amherst Academy records, principally from 1823-1825, that relate most directly to the efforts of its Trustees to obtain a charter for "a college in Amherst, Massachusetts" (as yet not named), have been collected in Series C, under the heading "Amherst Collegiate Institution." It is a somewhat arbitrary decision, since other names occasionally surface, but this appears to be most commonly used to refer to the institution as it evolved from an "academic department" within Amherst Academy but separate from it, to that which was chartered by the Massachusetts State Legislature as Amherst College on Feb. 18, 1825. The inception/founding period may be considered to end with the granting of the charter in 1825; nevertheless, Section 2 also includes later materials, e.g. records relating to the Charity Fund that extend past the charter date. Like Amherst Academy, the Charity Fund does not have a linear relationship to the founding of Amherst College, but is synchronous with it and an essential part of it, since it secured the new undertaking financially and provided its supporters with a solid rebuttal against arguments that the new college would become a drain on the financial resources of the state. The original College charter, as issued, with editions containing subsequent legislation, has been established as Series D of Section 2. Some volumes of the Memorabilia Collection were disbound to integrate relevant materials into this collection. The bindings, etc. of those volumes are located in a box at the end of the collection.
subseries
Sub-series A: General Files
General and miscellaneous information n.d.
Clippings (photocopies) from newspapers relating to the founding of Amherst College (Note: The original newspapers are shelved as oversize material in Box OS-1.) 1818-1825
Proceedings of a convention in Amherst, Sept. 21, 1818 (A...to found a new college...") 1818
The role of the trustees of Amherst Academy in the founding of Amherst College
Pleas and opposition to establishment of Amherst College, (Williams Controversy) 1818-1824
[Opposition] pamphlet: "Remarks on the Amherst Collegiate Charity Institution" ca. 1822-1823
Sub-series B: Charity Fund
Documents, 1 bound vol. "Memorabilia"; index inside front cover 1818-1881
Constitution and Bylaws 1818-1822
Constitution and Bylaws, plus Appendix and Index, (5 copies) 1881
"Charitable Fund of Amherst College": Constitution and Bylaws, plus addenda 1908
Oath of Rufus Graves to be "Financier" of the Charity Fund 1819 July 9
Minutes of the Board of Overseers of the Charity Fund 1822-1881
Financial records et al collected by John Leland, Agent and Treasurer of Amherst College (notebook) 1821-1835
Pledges, subscriptions, receipts, etc. 1818-1848
Pledges and subscriptions (4 notebooks): Jan.22, 1822, 1832, 1839-1841, 1839-1845 1822-1845
Subscription leaflets 1822
"Memoranda relating to Charity Fund Beneficiaries," Classes of 1836-1878 (notebook) 1836-1878
Correspondence 1839-1903
Sub-series C: Amherst Collegiate Institution/A Charter for Amherst College, 1823-1825
"To the Public" (6 p.) (Explanation of the funding of Amherst Collegiate Institution, and its separate identity from Amherst Academy). Also: "A Petition was presented to the Legislature . . . in June 1823. . ." (15 p.) (Request that the Trustees of Amherst Academy be granted corporate powers "as are usually given to the Trustees of Colleges" to handle the funds of the "Collegiate Institution at Amherst") 1823 Mar-Jun
Pleas for a charter for a college at Amherst (7 items) (Includes some references to the Williams College controversy) 1824 Jan-Jun
Pleas for a charter for a college at Amherst (continued) (2 items) 1824 Oct-Dec
"A Statement of the Affairs of the Amherst Institution, on the Fourth of October, 1824, Compiled From Evidence Exhibited to the Committee of Investigation..." (pamphlet, 36 pp.) 1824 Dec
"Report of the committee appointed to inquire into facts relative to the Amherst Collegiate Institution," by [Joseph E. Sprague], 15 p. (Includes suggestion for resolution of the Amherst-Williams controversy) 1825 Jan 8
Amherst Institution, Jan. 17, 1825 [from official documents]: Petition of the Founders and Proprietors [of the Charity Fund], presented June 5, 1823, to the General Court of Massachusetts, asking that the Trustees of Amherst Academy be granted "powers and privileges as are usually given to the Trustees of Colleges" (i.e. chartered). 4 p. (14 copies) [See also Box 6, Folder 7] Also: "Amherst Question." Speech of Col. John W. Lincoln . . . Jan. 18, 1825. Original sheet (fragile), plus photocopy. (Opposition to granting charter to the Trustees of Amherst Academy to act on behalf of a new college.) 1825 Jan
"Observations on the Amherst Question . . . . Addressed to the . . . House of Representatives by R. Webster. . . during the debate (Feb. 1825). . ." (In favor of granting charter to the petitioners) 1825
Sub-series D: The Charter
"In the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and twenty-five. An Act to establish a College in the town of Amherst." 6 p. 1 copy. Also contains photocopy of original charter. (Charter granted Feb. 18, 1825.) 1825
"Charter of Amherst College," with subsequent legislation: editions of 1930, 1935, 1945, 1957, 1972. 2 copies of each except 1 copy 1945. 1930-1972
"Charter of Amherst College", with subsequent legislation. [Presentation copies]. 8 copies 1991
Series 3: AFTER THE CHARTER, 1825-1849
Series 3, AFTER THE CHARTER, follows the development of the College through 1849 and is particularly rich in materials relating to the appeals for funds, both public and private, required to establish a firm financial footing for the new institution.
"The substance of two reports of the Faculty of Amherst College to the Board of Trustees, with the doings of the Board thereon". Aug. 22 and Dec. 5, 1826. 22 p. Amherst: Carter and Adams, 1827 (3 copies). Also facsimile reprints, 1948 (2 copies) 1827, 1948
"Outline of the system of instruction recently adopted in the College at Amherst, Mass. 1827." 8 p. Amherst: Carter and Adams (2 copies).Also, Salem (Mass.) Literary & Commercial Observer, Jan. 13, 1827 (+ photocopy of comments from p. 2); and notice in Boston Recorder and Telegraph, May 25, 1827. 1827
[Requests for aid from the General Court]: Jan. 12, 1831, House #13 and Senate #17. Also, "Documents relating to Amherst College", including "Resolve of the General Court on the petition of the Trustees of Amherst College" (p. 13), Jan. 13 and 14, 1832. 1831-1832
[Pamphlet], "Amherst College", by a Committtee: Heman Humphrey, Samuel Lathrop, William B. Bannister, 16 p. Prob. 1832 (12 copies). Also, letter [by George Bliss of Springfield], Feb. 1832, presented on p. 8 of "Amherst College" (above). Original and typescript. 1832
"Amherst College", March 1832 (see p. 13). Another version of the pamphlet in the preceding folder, published as a "last resort" (see p. 14) by the Committee (Humphrey, Lathrop, Bannister). Also, Alumni response to the appeal for funds [by] William P. Paine, Stephen C. Millett, Henry A. Homes. Andover, April 11, 1832. 1832
Appeals for public funds for Amherst College, and responses, as follows: January 1837 - Senate #37, 17 p. (2 copies); March 1838 - House #45, 12 p. (3 copies); Feb. 1839 - Senate #27, 13 p. (4 copies) 1837-1839
Fund-raising appeals (circulars et al) 1839 and 1841 1839-1841
Fowler, William C., "Causes of the Growth and Decline of Amherst College", 12 p. (3 copies). One copy accompanied by quotation from W.S. Tyler's History of Amherst College, which challenge the accuracy of Fowler's remarks.
Appeal for public funds for Amherst College, and response, as follows: March 1847 - House #105, 14 p. (3 copies). Also, Springfield Mass. Tri-Weekly Post, April 6, 1847 (Opposition to granting of public funds to Amherst College). Also, photocopy of unidentified clipping, July [1847], noting uses of funds collected by Amherst College. 1847
Memorial Appeal for funds, 1848.With letter by Edward Hitchcock, Jan. 6, 1848; "Remarks at a hearing. . ." Feb. 1, 1848; House #112 [Report on the Memorial Appeal] Mar. 1848. 1848
Addresses at the dedication of the new Cabinet and Observatory of Amherst College, June 28, 1848, by Hon. William B. Calhoun and others." Amherst: J. S. and C. Adams, 1848, 45 p. (2 copies). 1848
Memorial Appeal for funds. Includes: March 1849 - House #92, 40 p. Speech in support of the memorial of Harvard, Williams, and Amherst Colleges delivered . . . by Edward Everett. Cambridge: Metcalf and Company, 1849, 28 p. 1849
Series 4: 19th CENTURY TRUSTEES OF AMHERST COLLEGE
Section 4, 19TH CENTURY TRUSTEES OF AMHERST COLLEGE: For the purposes of this category of "Early History," 19th century trustees of the College are defined as those whose terms begin and end in the 19th century. This section includes the papers of Alfred Ely, James Fowler, Lewis Strong and Joseph Vaill. See also: Non-Alumni Biographical Files.
List of all 19th century trustees (from Amherst College Biographical Record, 1973 ed.)
Edwards, Bela B. (Trustee 1848-1852): letter to President Hitchcock re: new library building, funding 1851 Aug 8
Edwards, Bela B. (Trustee 1848-1852): letter to President Hitchcock re: aesthetics of new library building 1851 Sep 22
Ely, Alfred (Trustee 1825-1854): personal correspondence (3 items) 1834
Ely, Alfred (Trustee 1825-1854): personal correspondence (2 items) 1835
Ely, Alfred (Trustee 1825-1854): personal correspondence (2 items) 1836
Ely, Alfred (Trustee 1825-1854): personal correspondence (2 items) 1837
Ely, Alfred (Trustee 1825-1854): personal correspondence (2 items) 1838
Ely, Alfred (Trustee 1825-1854): personal correspondence (2 items) 1839
Ely, Alfred (Trustee 1825-1854): personal correspondence (2 items) 1840
Ely, Alfred (Trustee 1825-1854): personal correspondence (3 items) 1841
Ely, Alfred (Trustee 1825-1854): personal correspondence (3 items) 1842-1843
Ely, Alfred (Trustee 1825-1854): personal correspondence (3 items) 1844-1845
Ely, Alfred (Trustee 1825-1854): personal correspondence (2 items) 1846
Ely, Alfred (Trustee 1825-1854): personal correspondence (2 items) 1847
Fowler, James (Trustee 1826-1838): "Certificate of Trusteeship" 1826
Hardy, Alpheus (Trustee 1855-1877) and Henry Edwards re: funding for Science dept. and matching gift 1863 Jun
Perkins, Cogswell (Trustee 1850-1877). Letter re: site for new library 1851
Porter, Experience (Trustee 1821-1825): letter of recommendation for Henry Augustus Bridgman 1818 Dec
Strong, Lewis (Trustee 1825-1833): Letter to George Bliss 1832 Feb 9
Vaill, Joseph (Trustee 1821-1869): Memorabilia volume, disbound 1996 - covers, title page
Vaill, Joseph (Trustee 1821-1869): General and biographical materials 1864-1945
Vaill, Joseph (Trustee 1821-1869): [Funeral oration] by W.A. Stearns (2 copies) 1869 Feb 25
Vaill, Joseph (Trustee 1821-1869): Parsons, Isaac. Memoir of. . .Rev. Joseph Vaill (father of Joseph Vaill, Amherst College Trustee 1821-1869). NY: Taylor & Dodd, 1839. 1839
Correspondence 1838-1851
3 journals containing personal and financial materials: Feb.-Dec. 1841; Feb. 1842-Mar 1843; 1844-45 1841-1845
Fund-raising: circulars, memoranda, etc., 1841, 1843, 1844 1841-1844
Reports as General Agent of the College 1842-1844
"Statement on present state and future prospects of the College" 1844 Dec
Report to the Trustees 1848
"Plan for the organization of the faculty" (2 copies) n.d.