Eliphalet Pearson's Journal of College Disorders, 1788-1797.

ArchivalResource

Eliphalet Pearson's Journal of College Disorders, 1788-1797.

This journal contains entries about various student "disorders" which occured during Eliphalet Pearson's tenure at Harvard. Daily entries describe a wide range of students' rebellious conduct, which included the following offenses: hissing at speakers in chapel; throwing snowballs and stones at people (including tutors and then-President Joseph Willard) and at College buildings; scraping chairs and feet so that lecturers were unable to concentrate or make themselves heard; breaking windows; intoxication; moving and breaking furniture; stealing firewood; melting pewter plates from the kitchen and pouring the molten metal into a bell; building bonfires; stealing food, cider and candles; throwing food and utensils at meal times; stealing Bibles; wearing hats indoors; filling door locks with stones; and drawing on lecture room walls with gravel. There are also entries pertaining to more malicious offenses, including the drowning of a dog in a well. Several entries describe meetings of the College government to determine the appropriate punishments for each offense; students were often fined, expelled, or suspended ("rusticated") for their unruly behavior.

.03 cubic feet (1 volume).

Information

SNAC Resource ID: 7764960

Harvard University Archives.

Related Entities

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Harvard University

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w64n9x97 (person)

Harvard College was founded by a vote of the Great and General Court of Massachusetts on October 28, 1636 that allocated “400£ towards a schoale or colledge.” Subsequent legislative acts established the Board of Overseers, but it was the Charter of 1650 that created the Harvard Corporation as the College's primary governing board and defined its composition and authority. The College Charter became a contentious target for College officials, the Massachusetts Governor and General C...

Pearson, Eliphalet, 1752-1826

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6vt1w57 (person)

Principal of Phillips Academy, Andover, professor at Harvard College and Andover Theological Seminary. From the description of Papers, 1765-1815. (Andover Newton Theological School). WorldCat record id: 11853236 On March 1, 1805, a group of prominent Massachusetts citizens presented a plan for an endowment of a Professorship of Botany and Entomology to the Harvard Corporation. The goal of this group was to promote commerce, agriculture, medicine and the arts through the stud...