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COLLECTION Identifier: HUB 3790.2

Correspondence and records related to the Harvard College Plate

Overview

The Harvard College Plate originated with the donation of the first major piece in the collection, the Great Salt, by Richard Harris, probably in 1644. In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, the Harvard Corporation received silver as gifts from prominent alumni and donors, and from students seeking elevated status as "fellow commoners." The Plate includes several vessels created by New England silversmith John Coney, notably the Stoughton Cup, donated by acting Massachusetts Governor William Stoughton in 1701. This collection contains original and transcribed correspondence, inventories, and research materials that document the history of the Harvard College Plate, dating from 1736 to 1923. Correspondents include Harvard Presidents Edward Everett and John Thornton Kirkland, Harvard tutor Charles Stearns, University Librarian Thaddeus William Harris, and Harvard Corporation member and benefactor Oliver Wendell.

Dates

  • Creation: 1736-1923

Researcher Access

Open for research.

Copyright

Copying of fragile materials may be limited.

Extent

.11 cubic feet (1 legal half document box)

This collection contains original and transcribed correspondence, inventories, and research materials that document the history of the Harvard College Plate, dating from 1736 to 1923. Correspondents include Harvard Presidents Edward Everett and John Thornton Kirkland, Harvard tutor Charles Stearns, University Librarian Thaddeus William Harris, and Harvard Corporation member and benefactor Oliver Wendell. Several letters provide biographical information about Richard Harris, donor of the Great Salt, as well as historical information about the vessel. There is also correspondence regarding the loan of a silver tankard to Charles Stearns, reflecting an eighteenth century practice of dispersing the plate amongst faculty members. Additional materials include a letter from Oliver Wendell offering a donation for the College to acquire a christening basin, and a memorandum with provenance information about the Holyoke Caudle Cup. There are also original and transcribed inventories of silver dating from 1736 to 1886, which document the growth of the collection and how it was distributed. A file of research materials used in William C. Lane's article, "Early Silver Belonging to Harvard College," includes transcriptions of letters and College records related to the Plate. In some cases, folders include typed notes indicating where the materials were found at Harvard, or describing the contents of the folders.

Historical Note on the Harvard College Plate

Introduction

The Harvard College Plate originated with the donation of the first major piece in the collection, the Great Salt, by Richard Harris, probably in 1644. In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, the Harvard Corporation received silver as gifts from prominent alumni and donors, and from students seeking elevated status as "fellow-commoners." The Plate includes several vessels created by New England silversmith John Coney, notably the Stoughton Cup, donated by acting Massachusetts Governor William Stoughton in 1701.

The College Plate has served both practical and symbolic functions. It was used during Commencement dinners in the seventeenth, eighteenth, and nineteenth centuries. In the seventeenth century, certain pieces of the collection also adorned the head table in the Commons Hall during meals. In the eighteenth century, Harvard often dispersed the Plate among faculty members and officers of the school on loan. Since the twentieth century, the collection generally has been used only in ceremonies of significance, such as the installation of Harvard presidents.

The Plate originally consisted of three categories of silver: corporate, fellow commoner, and tutorial. Corporate silver was donated or bequeathed to the College by alumni and other benefactors. Fellow-commoner silver refers to objects offered to the College as extra tuition from undergraduates seeking elevated rank; fellow commoners were permitted to sit at the head table with Fellows during meals and were exempted from certain duties. Tutorial plate was traditionally presented to instructors by their graduating classes.

Harvard also acquired gifts of silver for ecclesiastic purposes, such as a christening basin commissioned through a gift by Oliver Wendell, as well as silver associated with past presidents, in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.

The vessels that now comprise the Harvard ceremonial silver are the Great Salt, the Stoughton Cup, the Browne Cup, the Holyoke Caudle Cup, the John Vassal Tankard, the William Vassal Tankard, the Dunster Tankard, and the Hedge Tankard.

The Great Salt

The Great Salt was originally owned by the Revered Jose Glover and his wife Elizabeth Harris, who sailed to America from England in 1638. Reverend Glover died on the journey, and Elizabeth remarried Reverend Henry Dunster (1609-1659?), the first president of Harvard from 1640 to 1654. When she died, the saltcellar was bequeathed to her brother, Richard Harris. Upon his death in 1644, the Great Salt was gifted to Harvard. Harris also donated a smaller trencher salt.

At the time they were presented to the College, the Great Salt, the Stoughton Cup, and the Browne Cup, were inscribed with initials or the family coat of arms; for example, the Great Salt was engraved with the letters “G I E” for Jose and Elizabeth Glover. But in 1847, the College added engravings with the full donor names. The inscription on the Great Salt is upside-down, reflecting confusion over the function of its three knops, which were thought to be legs; the knops were designed to support a plate of fruit.

The Stoughton Cup

The Stoughton Cup was created by New England silversmith John Coney in 1701 and presented to the College the same year by acting Massachusetts Governor William Stoughton (1632-1701; Harvard AB 1650), who had been a judge during the Salem witch trials, immediately preceding his death. The two-handled cup was used as a drinking vessel in a ritual that occurred at the end of Commencement dinner, in which it was passed among members of the Corporation, graduates, and guests.

The Browne Cup

The Browne Cup, created by John Burt (1691-1745), was commissioned from the 1731 bequest of Salem businessman Samuel Browne, who left the College £60 to buy a piece of plate bearing his arms. While Browne was not a Harvard alumnus, his family had a history of donating to the school, and his sons Samuel and William both graduated with the class of 1727. The elder Samuel Browne prospered from varied investments, including a 4,000-acre Connecticut plantation where 60 enslaved people labored to produce grain, vegetables, meat, and wood for export to sugar plantations in the Caribbean. The plantation, which was among the largest in New England, remained in the family until the American Revolutionary War, when Samuel Browne’s grandson William (Harvard AB 1755) was accused of being a Loyalist and his Connecticut lands were confiscated by the state government.

The Holyoke Caudle Cup

The Holyoke Caudle Cup was created by John Coney in circa 1690. It was owned by Edward Holyoke (1689-1769; Harvard AB 1705, AM 1708), who served as Harvard president from 1737 to 1769, and was passed down through his family. Charlotte A. Hedge, Holyoke’s great-great-granddaughter, donated the cup to Harvard in 1903.

The Vassal Tankards

Created by Boston silversmith Joseph Kneeland (1700-1740) in circa 1729, these tankards were donated to the College by brothers John Vassall (1713-1747; Harvard AB 1732) and William Vassall (1715-1800; Harvard AB 1733) while they were students, in exchange for fellow-commoner status. The Vassalls were among the wealthiest sugar-planting families in Jamaica, and John and William later operated their own sugar plantations on the island, where they each enslaved hundreds of people.

The tankards bear the Vassall family canting arms: a cup and sun (vas + sol) surmounted by an oceangoing ship (or vessel). They are engraved, “Donum Joannis Vassale / Commensalis / A.D. 1729” and “Donum Guilielmi Vassale / Commensalis / A.D. 1729.

The John Vassall and William Vassall tankards are the only surviving pieces of marked fellow-commoner silver in the College Plate.

The Dunster Tankard

The Dunster Tankard was created by Ephraim Cobb (1708-1775) in circa 1760. It was donated to the College by Nathan Smith, of Pembroke, Massachusetts, in 1853. The tankard is engraved with the initials “H.D.,” which led to the belief that it had belonged to Henry Dunster, although Dunster died in 1659.

The Hedge Tankard

Created in circa 1700 by Edward Winslow (1669-1753), the tankard is not engraved with either family arms or the name of its original owner, and it most likely was given to Harvard from a fellow-commoner, possibly John Winthrop (1681-1747; Harvard AB 1700). It came into the possession of Levi Hedge (1766-1844; Harvard AB 1792, AM 1795), the husband of Edward Holyoke’s daughter Elizabeth, when he became a tutor in 1795. Hedge was a professor at Harvard from 1810 to 1832, after which time he apparently transferred the tankard back to the College.

Arrangement

This collection is arranged in four series:

  1. Correspondence and memorandum, 1781-1905
  2. Inventories, 1736-1886, and undated
  3. Research materials used in William C. Lane's article, "Early Silver Belonging to Harvard College," [1923]
  4. College bowl inscription, undated

Acquisition information

This is an artificial collection of materials related to the Harvard College Plate assembled by the Harvard University Archives. Acquisition information, when available, is noted in the folder list.

Online access

All of the records have been digitized and are available online. Links accompany detailed descriptions.

Related Materials

In the Harvard University Archives:

  1. General information about silver tableware related to Harvard (HUB 3790): http://id.lib.harvard.edu/alma/990086173280203941/catalog
  2. General information about silver tableware related to Harvard [Photographs of silver spoon and silver buckles] (HUB 3790.5)
  3. Harvard University. Corporation. College Books, 1636-1827 (UAI 5.5): http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.ARCH:hua53010
  4. Harvard University. Corporation. Corporation records: minutes, 1643-1933 (UAI 5.30): http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.ARCH:hua51010
  5. Harvard University. Corporation. Harvard College Papers, 2nd series, 1826-1869 (UAI 5.125): http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.ARCH:hua12002
  6. Sparks, Jared, 1789-1866. Papers of Jared Sparks (UAI 15.886): http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.ARCH:hua13005

References

  • Morison, S. (1936). Three centuries of Harvard, 1636-1936. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.
  • Skerry, J. (2004). Silver at Harvard College from Its Founding to the Revolution.

Inventory update

This document last updated 2019 September 5.

Processing Information

The collection was originally titled "Letters and manuscripts relating to silver" and arranged in no particular order. It was re-processed in 2015; re-processing included rehousing the materials, and creating series and folder titles.

All titles were supplied by the archivist unless otherwise noted in the folder list.

Copies of letters and duplicate materials that exist elsewhere in the Harvard University Archives are noted at the folder level.

This finding aid was created by Brooke McManus in September 2015.

Preservation and description of Correspondence and records related to the Harvard College Plate was supported by the Arcadia-funded Colonial North American Project at Harvard University.

Sections of the finding aid were revised in September 2019 to incorporate biographical information on several donors to the College Plate provided by Caitlin Galante-DeAngelis Hopkins, Research Associate for the Harvard and Slavery Project.

Title
Correspondence and records related to the Harvard College Plate, 1736-1923: an inventory
Language of description
und
EAD ID
hua09015

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.

Contact:
Pusey Library
Harvard Yard
Cambridge MA 02138 USA
(617) 495-2461