Overview
Daniel Appleton White (1776-1861) was a Massachusetts lawyer, legislator, and judge. These papers document his activities as a student and his early career as a teacher in Massachusetts from 1793 to 1803. They include materials from his time as a student at Atkinson Academy in New Hampshire in 1793 and as an undergraduate at Harvard College from 1793 to 1797, as well as documents created while teaching at the grammar school in Medford, Massachusetts from 1797 to 1799 and as a tutor at Harvard College from 1799 to 1803. In addition, the collection contains White's memoir of his undergraduate years at Harvard, written in 1837 when he was sixty-one years old, and eulogies he wrote in 1800 following the deaths of Samuel Shapleigh and George Washington.
Dates
- Creation: 1793-1803, 1837
Researcher Access
The Papers of Daniel Appleton White are open for research.
Copying Restriction
Copying of fragile materials may be limited.
Extent
.26 cubic feet (1 half document box)This collection documents Daniel Appleton White's life as a student and a teacher. It contains papers related to his studies at Atkinson Academy and at Harvard College; two letters written in the role of grammar school teacher in Medford, Massachusetts; lecture notes and several sets of quaestiones historicae White used while a tutor at Harvard College, two eulogies he wrote in 1800, and a memoir he wrote at the age of sixty-one, reflecting on his undergraduate years at Harvard. The papers created while he was a Harvard undergraduate include an address delivered at a Hasty Pudding Club anniversary celebration, an address delivered at a Speaking Club celebration, and a Phi Beta Kappa dissertation which White co-authored with classmate John Collins Warren.
Biographical Note
Daniel Appleton White was born to John and Elizabeth (Haynes) White in what is now Lawrence, Massachusetts on June 7, 1776. He grew up on the family's farm, leaving in June 1792 to study under Silas Dinsmoor at Atkinson Academy in New Hampshire. White was a diligent student and gained admission to Harvard College in July 1793. He received an A.B. with highest honors from Harvard in 1797, taught at the Medford (Massachusetts) grammar school from 1797 to 1799, and was Latin tutor at Harvard from 1799 to 1803. White studied law while he was a Harvard tutor and was admitted to the bar in Massachusetts in 1804. After living in Salem, Massachusetts for a brief time from 1803 to 1804, White moved to Newburyport, Massachusetts, where he established a law practice. White stayed in Newburyport until 1817, when he returned to Salem. He was a member of the Massachusetts legislature from 1810 to 1815 and was elected a judge in Essex County, Massachusetts, in 1815; he held this office for thirty-eight years, until 1853. White was also an active member of the Essex Institute and the Massachusetts Historical Society and served as an Overseer at Harvard from 1842 to 1853. He was married three times. Daniel Appleton White died in Salem, Massachusetts on March 30, 1861.
Arrangement
The papers are arranged in four series:
- Student work, 1793-1797
- Teaching materials, 1797-1803
- Eulogies, 1800
- Reminiscences of life as an undergraduate at Harvard College from 1793 to 1797, 1837
Papers within each series are arranged chronologically.
Acquisition information
The collection was donated to Harvard University in 1958 by the Rev. Henry Wilder Foote, great grandson of Daniel Appleton White.
Online access
All of the papers have been digitized and are available online. Links accompany detailed descriptions.
References
- Memoir of Daniel Appleton White prepared by request of the Essex Institute, and read at the meeting of January 11, 1864 by George W. Briggs. Salem : printed for the Institute by C.W. Swasey, 1864.
- Memoir of Hon. Daniel Appleton White : prepared agreeably to a resolution of the Massachusetts historical society by James Walker. Boston : printed by J. Wilson and Son, 1863.
Inventory update
This document last updated 2018 December 11.
Processing Information
Items in this collection were previously cataloged separately, as individual items or in small collections. The material was re-processed in 2010, combining all of the Harvard University Archives' holdings of Daniel Appleton White papers to create one collection. Re-processing involved a collection survey, re-housing in appropriate archival folders and boxes, and the creation of this finding aid.
This finding aid was created by Laura Morris in May 2010.
Preservation and description of the Papers of Daniel Appleton White was supported by the Arcadia-funded project Harvard in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries.
- Title
- White, Daniel Appleton, 1776-1861. Papers of Daniel Appleton White, 1793-1803, 1837: an inventory
- Language of description
- und
- EAD ID
- hua08010
Repository Details
Part of the Harvard University Archives Repository
Holding nearly four centuries of materials, the Harvard University Archives is the principal repository for the institutional records of Harvard University and the personal archives of Harvard faculty, as well as collections related to students, alumni, Harvard-affiliates and other associated topics. The collections document the intellectual, cultural, administrative and social life of Harvard and the influence of the University as it emerged across the globe.
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