Benjamin Franklin Clarke papers, 1852-1908.

ArchivalResource

Clarke, Benjamin Franklin, 1831-1908. Benjamin Franklin Clarke papers, 1852-1908.

Benjamin Franklin Clarke papers, 1852-1908.

http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/122493269

Consists of 60 volumes of diaries, account books, notebooks, and an autograph album chronicling the life of teacher and professor of mathematics Benjamin Franklin Clarke from 1852 to 1908. Topics documented in the diaries include men's attitudes toward work and education in the nineteenth century, the training of teachers, student and faculty life at Brown University, family life, travel in the United States and Europe, attendance at and teaching of Sunday schools, and the weather in New England. In diaries written from 1852 to 1854, Clarke describes life on the family farm near Newport, Me.; work as a machinist in Me. and Mass.; and his attendance at Baptist churches, Sunday schools, lectures and his spiritual life. In the 1852-54 diaries he often described his desire to go to school as well as loneliness and depression. He attended lectures by Professor Agassiz at the Lowell Institute and by a Mr. Hichcock at the YMCA in 1854. While attending the Bridgewater, Mass., State Normal School from 1854 to 1855, Clarke wrote about his classes, other students, teachers, and a teachers' institute conducted in April 1855. Professor Agassiz taught classes at the Bridgewater Normal School. Diaries from 1855 to 1859 document Clarke's experiences as a teacher in a Medfield, Mass., school and at Bridgewater Normal School. Clarke described his life as a Brown University student from 1859 to 1863. After 1863 the diaries concern Clarke's responsibilities as a Brown University faculty member, his family life, travel, and events at Brown University. Travel diaries and account books describe Great Britain, Germany, Switzerland, France, and Italy from 1881 to 1882 (6 v.) and Ireland, Great Britain, France, Italy, Germany, Egypt, Palestine, Constantinople, and Greece from 1897 to 1898 (4 v.). The Europe and Middle East travel diaries have photographs and prints glued in and inserted throughout. There are also travel or vacation diaries describing Minn. in 1864 and 1870; eastern Canada, including N.B. (Chatham), N.S., Quebec, Runneymede, and Gaspe from 1885 to 1891. Other diaries describe Mass., including Cape Cod, Vt., Conn., and Me. in various years from 1877 to 1894. An 1856-1857 diary includes a description of a walking tour in central Mass., beginning and ending in the town of Waltham. There are copies of correspondence transcribed in or inserted in some vols. In addition to diary references to Sunday schools, there are two notebooks that contain Sunday school lessons and bible topics. Clarke usually recorded daily weather conditions in the diaries. Notes created by Clarke's granddaughter, Mary Frances Williams, are inserted in a number of the volumes.

60 v. (4.4 linear ft.)

Brown University Archives, John Hay Library