Call Number:

003.008

Repository:

Haverford College Quaker & Special Collections

Extent:

0.5 linear ft. (1 box)

Language:

English

Preferred Citation:

William H.S. Wood diary (HCS.003.008), Quaker & Special Collections, Haverford College, Haverford, PA.

Date:

1855-1856 (inclusive)

Creator:

Wood, William H.S., 1849-1907

Form:

Diaries

Abstract:

William H.S. Wood's diary records the first five months of his time as a student of Haverford College. It contains information pertaining to his extracurricular activities, the weather, personal projects, and events around Haverford at the time.

William H.S. Wood was born in New York City on April 13, 1840, to William Wood and Mary S. Underhill. Wood attended Haverford College from 1855 to 1856. He was a partner in the firm of William Wood and Co., the President of the Bowery Savings Bank in New York, an Incorporator at the New York Botanic Garden, and a member of the New York Academy of Sciences and the New York Historical Society. Wood published "Friends of the City of New York in the Nineteenth Century" in 1904. He married Emma Congdon on September 5, 1875. He was the father to W.C. Wood, a graduate in the Haverford College class of 1884. He died in New York City on December 12, 1907.

William Wood's diary documents his participation in the Haverford Loganian Society, where he debated on topical issues of the time (such as coeducational colleges) and read copies of "The Collegian," Haverford's newspaper. In his diary, Wood actively records thermometer temperatures, noting especially frigid days during the winter and their effects, which included gas shortages and class cancellation. Over the course of the journal, Wood notes three major projects: the construction of "hydrostatic bellows", a sled, and a sawmill which would run on the power from a windmill. Wood also records general events about the College, including skating at Kelley's pond, sledding on hills, and exciting events around the college: namely the controversy surrounding the cutting of a septic tank's line, the visitation of Oxford professors, and an explorer's tale from the Arctic. Academically, he marks certain lectures given by Joseph Harlan in astronomy and lessons he receieved in chemistry.

Materials are arranged in chronological order.