John D. Runkle papers

  1. Resources
  2. View Resource

ArchivalResource

John D. Runkle papers

1853-1880

https://archivesspace.mit.edu/repositories/2/resources/592

The collection consists mainly of the professional correspondence of John D. Runkle, a professor of mathematics and the second president of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). The bulk of the incoming correspondence is from William Barton Rogers, MIT’s founder, and his wife, Emma Savage Rogers, concerning MIT. Other prominent correspondents include Robert H. Richards, Charles W. Eliot, Benjamin Pierce, William R. Ware, Albert F. Hall, and T. Sterry Hunt. Letters from Edward Everett, Chauncey Wright, James Walker, James M. Craft, Edward C. Pickering, J. H. C. Coffin, John Muir, Alfred P. Rockwell, Samuel Kneeland, Gaetano Lanza, John M. Ordway, D. C. Fogg, Simon Newcomb, James Angell, and C. H. Dalton are also included. Most of the letters date from the years 1869 to 1873. In 1871 Runkle accompanied MIT mining students on a trip to Colorado and Utah, and the collection includes several letters he wrote to his wife during the trip. On the topic of a proposed merger with Harvard, a letter from Harvard president Charles W. Eliot suggesting such a plan to Runkle is in the folder of June 1870 correspondence. Other education issues are topics of correspondence and the collection includes an 1876 report Runkle wrote for the MIT Corporation on the "Russian System of Shop-Work Construction for Engineers and Machinists." In 1858 Runkle founded the short-lived journal, , and the three published volumes are included. There are some letters to Runkle from his son and brother, as well as a volume with copies of letters Catherine Runkle wrote to her sisters, Lucy and Emily Bird, while she was in Europe with her husband and children, July 20, 1878, to September 5, 1880. The bound volume includes a forward written by John Runkle in 1883 to his two youngest children, who were born after the European trip. The Mathematical Monthly

1.0 cubic feet; (3 manuscript boxes)

eng, Latn

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Libraries

Information

SNAC Resource ID: 6358279

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Libraries

Related Entities

There are 4 Entities related to this resource.

Harvard-M.I.T. Alliance (Proposed), 1870

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w64g77xj (corporateBody)

Runkle, Catharine Robbins, 1839-1897

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6xb87fd (person)

Catharine Robbins Runkle (neé Bird), was born September 19, 1839. She married John Daniel Runkle in 1862. Together they had six children: Catharine Bird, William Bird, John Cornelius, Emma Rogers, Eleanor Winslow, and Gordon Taylor. Catharine Robbins Runkle died February 24, 1897....

Eliot, Charles William, 1834-1926

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6sn07qt (person)

Eliot served as president of Harvard University (1869-1909). From the description of Correspondence of Charles W. Eliot, 1870-1920. (Harvard Law School Library). WorldCat record id: 234339031 Charles William Eliot (1834-1926) was President of Harvard University from March 12, 1869 to May 19, 1909. He also taught mathematics and chemistry at Harvard University (1858-1863) and at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (1865-1869). Eliot was one of the most influential educa...

Runkle, John Daniel, 1822-1902

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w64b4s9k (person)

John Daniel Runkle, 1822-1902, SB, MA, 1851, Harvard College, was the second president of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) from 1870 to 1878, having served as acting president from 1868 to 1870. He was professor of mathematics from 1865 to 1902. Earlier in 1860 he was a member of the committee that prepared the " Objects and Plan of an Institute of Technology," which led to the establishment of MIT in 1861, and he worked closely with the founder and first president of...