Overview
Reverend John Pierce (1773-1849, Harvard AB 1793) was pastor of the First Church in Brookline, Mass. for fifty years, and served as secretary to the Harvard Board of Overseers. The collection holds five Harvard Triennial Catalogues annotated by Pierce for the years 1794, 1797, 1800, 1803, and 1806 with biographical information about Harvard alumni. Pierce's work was a resource for the Biographical Sketches of Graduates of Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1642-1774 series.
Dates
- Creation: 1794-1806
Researcher Access
The Triennial Catalogues annotated by John Pierce are open for research.
Copying Restriction
Copying of fragile materials may be limited.
Extent
.08 cubic feet (1 half document box, 5 volumes)The Triennial Catalogues are chronological and cumulative lists of Harvard graduates published every three years from 1674 to 1875. The Catalogues represent Harvard’s first efforts to comprehensively document its graduates and were considered the official record of degree recipients. A dedicated group of alumni used the Catalogue as a basis for collecting additional biographical information.
The collection holds five Harvard Triennial Catalogues annotated by John Pierce with biographical information about graduates. John Langdon Sibley relied on these five volumes, and fifteen others in preparing the Biographical Sketches of Graduates of Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1642-1774 series. The 1806 interleaved volume is the most heavily annotated and Sibley noted in the preface to the first volume of Biographical Sketches that "he bestowed most labor" on it. Pierce's annotations focused primarily on the birthplaces of graduates.
Historical Note
Reverend John Pierce (Harvard AB 1793) was born in Dorchester, Mass. on July 14, 1773. He graduated from Harvard in 1793. Pierce was ordained as the pastor of the First Church in Brookline, Mass. on March 15, 1797, and held the position for the next fifty years. He served as secretary to the Harvard Board of Overseers, and was also a member of the Massachusetts Convention of Congregational Ministers and the Massachusetts Congregational Charitable Society. In 1798, he married Abigail Lovel, who died in 1800. In 1802, he married Lucy Tappan; he and Lucy were married for 47 years and had 10 children. Pierce's biographical research and annotations to the Harvard Triennial Catalogues began when he was an undergraduate at Harvard and continued until 1848. He died in 1849.
Acquisition information
The Catalogues were deposited in the Harvard University Archives by the Massachusetts Historical Society as part of the John Langdon Sibley Collection. The volumes were originally donated by John Pierce to the Massachusetts Historical Society in 1849, with the agreement than John Langdon Sibley could first review the volumes for his biographical research. The Proceedings of the Massachusetts Historical Society noted in 1879 that "Sibley delivered the catalogues to the Society" (Vol. 17 p. 59).
General note
This document last updated 2018 November 26.
Processing Information
The material was first classified and described in the Harvard University Archives shelflist prior to 1980 as individual items. The material was re-processed in 2010. Re-processing involved a collection survey, reclassification as HUM 30, and the creation of this finding aid.
This finding aid was created by Diann Benti in June 2010.
Preservation and description of the Triennial Catalogues annotated by John Pierce was supported by the Arcadia-funded project Harvard in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries.
- Title
- Pierce, John, 1773-1849. Triennial Catalogues annotated by John Pierce, 1794-1806: an inventory
- Language of description
- und
- EAD ID
- hua15010
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.
Pusey Library
Harvard Yard
Cambridge MA 02138 USA
(617) 495-2461
archives_reference@harvard.edu