Harvard College Class of 1822 Class Book, 1822-1852.

The 1822 Class Book is in some ways a nineteenth-century counterpart to the twentieth-century class yearbook, and in other ways it presents a unique perspective from nineteenth-century Harvard students in that it records a great deal more biographical information, especially on their lives and class activities after college. It contains class minutes, a listing of all of the class members of 1822, and handwritten biographies.

The 1822 Class Book features minutes from the class meetings throughout the years of 1822-1829, and 1852. The minutes, or 'Class Records,' as Class Secretary Nathaniel I. Bowditch refers to them, reflect the annual commencement dinners the class members attempted to organize over the years. The first entry from April 1822 and highlights a discussion about having a class dinner for graduation and possibly hiring a poet and orator. But when an appointed group of classmates presented the idea to the President of Harvard, he denied them permission. The first entry also includes the general duties of the 'Secretary for Life.'

In the next few entries, the class members decided to proceed with a dinner despite the President's resistance, and they voted on a standing committee who would prepare annual dinners for the class with their own supplies and funds. The next eight entries, from June 1822 to August 1829, are about their annual commencement dinners and describe where they met and how many class members were in attendance. There are no entries during the years 1830 to 1851. The last entry in the minutes was written twenty-three years later.

The Festival of 1852 marked the thirtieth anniversary of the class and is lavishly described. Twenty members of the Class of 1822 met at the Revere House in Boston. Eleven class members did not respond to the invitations, and it is interesting to note that class member Theodore Clay was not contacted, since he remained at an insane asylum at that time. It was noted in the minutes that twenty-four classmates had died since their last meeting in 1829. Each of the classmates gave a short talk at this dinner, reminiscing about his life since graduation. The accounts are included at the end of the minutes.

In addition to the brief biographies found in the minutes of the Festival of 1852, there is also a listing of all of the class members of 1822 organized into columns that contain each man's name, residences, year entered at Harvard, year he 'left college,' birth date, and death date. Many of them are edited in pencil, presumably by Bowditch, the Class Secretary.

Finally, the 1822 Class Book contains handwritten biographies on the majority of the class members, mainly written by Bowditch, in a standard format. Each biographical essay includes references to the student's family background, early childhood and education, and his life beyond Harvard: marriage, career, and circumstances of his death. Some entries include obituaries from the local newspapers. While providing a high degree of detail on many members of the class, the Class Book of 1822 does not have complete biographical entries for all members. Both the autobiographical and biographical entries are all handwritten in the third-person and candidly convey what life was like for the Class of 1822, both during and after Harvard.

Some extraordinary events are recorded in this volume. In one account, Nathaniel Bowditch writes in scribbled pencil that class member Theodore Clay left in the middle of the term in 1818 and was admitted to an insane asylum for many years. Nothing else was included on Clay beyond that, even though Bowditch had begun his biographical entry in the same way as the others: "Theodore W. Clay, son of the Hon. Henry Clay, was born." Unfortunately, his childhood and early education are not described. Although one entry of the College Papers, vol. X, reveals that there was mention in a letter to President Kirkland that Clay was considered 'doubtful' by the faculty. In addition, Jephthah A.J. Bynam's biographical entry reads that he was dismissed from college during his senior year for stabbing his classmate Othniel Dinsmore. The volume has no biographical entry for Dinsmore, so it remains silent about his fate. However, the Faculty Records IX, disclose more details, indicating that he assaulted Dinsmore with a small knife and a heavy cane and that Dinsmore was not permitted to return to college after being disrespectful to college authority. Finally, Class Secretary Bowditch was also mentioned in the Faculty Records IX for wreaking havoc on campus. According to the report, he set fire to an outhouse and was publicly admonished and sent home to his father, a noted mathematician, for a period of time.