Collections

This collection gives a snapshot of the activities of the student group the Honorable Company of College Printers from the inception of the printing presses in residential colleges at Yale to the 1990s. The heyday of this group was in the mid 1950s to the early 1980s, when George Vaill was active.

The records consist of correspondence, examinations, news clippings, and courses of study documenting the activities of the Yale College Honors Committee.

The Honors Theses Collection includes original documents created by senior students in the Honors Program. The theses cover a broad range of subject areas and represent most academic departments. New theses are added at the end of the spring semester each year.

The papers contain correspondence, financial and legal records, genealogical material, account books, maps, autograph albums, scrapbooks, ships' logs, and memorabilia from several generations of the Hooker family of Farmington, Connecticut. Early family records contain correspondence and documents relating to the American Revolution. Eighteenth-century legal and financial records in the papers include deeds and leases on land in Farmington, Connecticut; indentures (1760-1763); wills; and inventories of estates. One of the major figures in the papers is Edward Hooker (1822-1903), commander in the United States Navy. Two volumes document his command of the Potomac Flotilla (1863) and of the U.S.S. Commodore (1864-1865), both during the Civil War. Maps and charts collected by Edward Hooker relate to the Civil War and eight are connected with his command of the U.S.S. Idaho during its voyage around the world (1867-1868).

Papers of Edward Washburn Hopkins (1857-1932), professor of Sanskrit and comparative philology at Yale; and Clark Hopkins, member of the classics department and director of the Dura-Europos expeditions with smaller amounts of material on Allen Hopkins, Edward Lewis Hopkins (1898-), Francis Washburn Hopkins, (1896-), Samuel Hopkins (1756-1782), and Edward Allen Low (d.1880). The Edward Washburn Hopkins papers contain writings on religion in India and classical Greece and the Clark Hopkins papers have an essay and photographs on excavations in Syria.

Letters by and about Horace Bushnell collected by his daughter, Mary Bushnell Cheney in connection with her book: Life and Letters of Horace Bushnell (New York, Harper & Brothers, 1880). The earliest items are a letter from Bushnell's great-grandmother to his mother (n.d.) and a letter to him from his grandmother, Mary Bushnell (1823 June 7). The letters from Bushnell to his daughter, to friends, and to parishioners seeking advice were written between 1855 and 1874. Also in the collection is a marriage service he used. The letters (1876-1901) to Mary B. Cheney concerning her father and commenting on her book, were written by Cyrus Augustus Bartol, Amos Sheffield Chesebrough, N. H. Egleston, Edwin Pond Parker, and William W. Patton who each have essays or letters on Bushnell printed in her book.

The collection includes five diaries containing valuable biographical information and documenting Bushnell's trip abroad, 1845-1846, and manuscript sermons, 1832-1875, which give insight into the less formal aspects of Bushnell's thought. The material written about Bushnell during his lifetime pertains to the controversy associated with his theological beliefs. Horace Bushnell was born in Bantam, Connecticut on April 14, 1802. He was educated at Yale (B.A., 1827; M.A., 1830; B.D., 1833), and received degrees from Wesleyan University, Harvard, and Yale. He served as pastor of North Church, Hartford, CT from 1833-1859. He was the author ofGod in Christ (1849) and Christ in Theology (1851), as well as other works uncongenial to the orthodox theology of his times.

Mainly correspondence between U.S. and Japanese officials dealing with the business of the Kaitakushi (of which General Capron was commissioner and adviser), a department of the Japanese Government in charge of the settlement of Hokkaido. Persons prominent in the collection include David Amomen, Thomas Antisell, Murray S. Day, Joseph Henry, Thornton A. Jenkins, Governor K. Kuroda, Benjamin S. Lyman, Henry S. Monroe, George M. Robeson, John R. Rogers, William Tecumseh Sherman, and James R. Wasson.

The papers contain letters, writings, and records of the Day family. Series I holds letters sent to Horace Day from his parents Gad and Roxanna Day, his brother George Edward Day (Yale 1833), his cousin Lucinda Day, and his friends, Yale classmates, and colleagues including Edward E. Atwater, Erasmus Darwin Hudson, Charles Backus McLean, and Noah Porter. Also present are letters of recommendation written on Day's behalf by Jeremiah Day, Eleazar T. Fitch, Anthony D. Stanley, and Nathaniel W. Taylor. Personal Papers includes material investigating Gad Day's military service and a proposal from E. S. Goodrich to publish the Pioneer newspaper at St. Paul, Minnesota. Also present is a manuscript broadside announcing a music concert at sea and a printed broadside advertising Thomas Kimpton's Parcel Express shipping service from London to "all parts of the kingdom" as well as the colonies and and North America; they may be related to Day's trips to Europe in the late 1850s. Series II holds autograph manuscripts and typescripts of writings by Day and his daughter Sarah Day Woodward, including addresses delivered before the New Haven Colony Historical Society. Also in the series are a group of manuscript sermons by an unidentified author, dated 1728-1833, and newspaper clippings related to the history of New Haven, Connecticut, dated 1857-1915. Series III holds five financial ledgers for the Day & Fitch company dating 1845-1855, and one personal account book recording Day's expenses, 1868-1874. Series IV holds two volumes of Day's notes made during meetings of the New Haven Board of Education, 1882-1890.

The papers consist of correspondence, topical files, and physics files which document Taft's career as a professor and researcher in physics and as an administrator at Yale University. While the majority of records created during Taft's tenure as master of Davenport College and dean of Yale College are within the University Archives, Taft maintained some correspondence from these offices within his personal papers. His personal files contain correspondence with his parents and other family members, diaries, and student notebooks and papers. As a member of the board of the Taft School, Taft maintained files of correspondence, board meeting minutes, reports, and printed material from 1953-1983.