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Charles Greene Rockwood Collection on Earthquakes

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Held at: Princeton University Library: Manuscripts Division [Contact Us]

This is a finding aid. It is a description of archival material held at the Princeton University Library: Manuscripts Division. Unless otherwise noted, the materials described below are physically available in their reading room, and not digitally available through the web.

Overview and metadata sections

Rockwood

Charles Greene Rockwood was a professor of mathematics from 1877 to 1905 at Princeton Unviersity, and had many interests in seismology and general scientific study. In 1878 he was a member of the Princeton Expedition to observe the solar eclipse at Denver, Colorado, and in 1886 he assisted the U.S. Geological Survey in the investigation of the major earthquake in Charleston, South Carolina. Rockwood was awarded an honorary degree from Princeton in 1896. He also published many articles on volcanology and seismology.

This collection consists of scrapbooks of newspaper clippings, letters, notes, and printed matter compiled by Charles Greene Rockwood, relating to earthquakes, tidal waves, volcanos, and unusual astronomical occurrences. Included are four large scrapbooks of letters and newspaper clippings about earthquakes around the world, from 1872-1907, four other scrapbooks of clippings and notes on the Princeton Expedition to Denver in 1878 for the solar eclipse, the transits of Venus of 1874 and 1882, the 1906 earthquake in San Francisco, the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius in the same year, and related scientific topics. There is also correspondence of William Morris Davis and E. A. Hill about the Philadelphia earthquake of Aug. 10, 1884, and a manuscript of a paper by Rockwood on "Krakatoa" read before a science club in 1890. There are letters to Rockwood spread throughout the collection.

In addition, there are three scrapbooks, 1870-1892, of newspaper clippings, notes, lists, and letters on earthquakes and volcanos compiled by John M. Batchelder (1811-1892), a civil engineer and scientific inventor. There scrapbooks were given to Charles Greene Rockwood in 1895 by Isabel Batchelder.

There are also 33 photographs (10" x 13") of the Charleston, S.C., earthquake of August 31, 1886. This set was given to Rockwood by the U.S. Geological Survey in recognition of his assistance in planning for the investigation of the quake. All are mounted on boards and captioned by hand

Newspaper clippings, etc. transferred from C0199. Photographs transferred from the Graphic Arts Division.

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This collection was processed in 2001. Finding aid written in 2001.

No appraisal information is available.

Publisher
Manuscripts Division
Finding Aid Date
2001
Access Restrictions

Collection is open for research use.

Use Restrictions

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Collection Inventory

Scope and Contents

letters and clippings about earthquakes, worldwide

Physical Description

4 boxes

Scrapbook, vol. 1, 1872-1879. 1 folder.
Physical Description

1 folder

Scrapbook, vol. 2, 1880-1883. 1 folder.
Physical Description

1 folder

Scrapbook, vol. 3, 1884-1885. 1 folder.
Physical Description

1 folder

Scrapbook, vol. 4, 1886-1907. 1 folder.
Physical Description

1 folder

Physical Description

1 box

Physical Description

1 box

letters and postcards to Davis about the Philadelphia earthquake of Aug. 10, 1884, 1884. 2 folders.
Physical Description

2 folders

clippings collected by Davis about the Philadelphia earthquake, 1884. 1 folder.
Physical Description

1 folder

Physical Description

1 box

letters to Hill from various agents of the New York, Lake Erie & Western R. R. Co. about the Philadelphia earthquake, 1884. 1 folder.
Physical Description

1 folder

Physical Description

1 box

"American Earthquakes," AMs, and misc. notes, 1884. 1 folder.
Physical Description

1 folder

"Krakatoa," "paper read before the Science Club, May 8, 1890," AMs, 1890. 1 folder.
Physical Description

1 folder

"List of Earthquakes, 1872-1882," compiled from the publications of Charles Greene Rockwood by Cleveland Abbe, AMs, 1872-1882. 1 folder.
Physical Description

1 folder

letters to Rockwood, 1872-1905. 1 folder.
Physical Description

1 folder

Physical Description

1 box

1872-1879, 1872-1879. 1 folder.
Physical Description

1 folder

1884, 1884. 1 folder.
Physical Description

1 folder

Physical Description

1 box

clippings on earthquakes, 1872. 1 folder.
Physical Description

1 folder

Physical Description

1 box

clippings on astronomy, the solar eclipse, Denver, Col., July 29, 1878, dates not examined. 1 folder.
Physical Description

1 folder

Halstead Observatory, dates not examined. 1 folder.
Physical Description

1 folder

the transit of Venus, Dec. 1882, etc., dates not examined. 1 folder.
Physical Description

1 folder

Physical Description

1 box

clippings on astronomy and science, the transit of Venus, 1874, dates not examined. 1 folder.
Physical Description

1 folder

Physical Description

1 box

loose clippings on the San Francisco earthquake of 1906, and the eruption of Vesuvius, 1906, dates not examined. 1 folder.
Physical Description

1 folder

Physical Description

1 box

misc. pamphlets & offprints, 1884-1887. 1 folder.
Physical Description

1 folder

misc. newspaper clippings, 1879-1889. 1 folder.
Physical Description

1 folder

Physical Description

2 boxes

Scrapbook, vol. I, 1870s-1880s. 1 folder.
Scope and Contents

clippings and notes on earthquakes, tidal waves and volcanos, includes records copied from a catalog by [John William & Robert] Mallet

Physical Description

1 folder

Scrapbook, vol. II, 1880s. 1 folder.
Scope and Contents

clippings and notes on earthquakes

Physical Description

1 folder

Scrapbook, vol. III, 1873-1892. 1 folder.
Scope and Contents

letters, clippings, and printed matter on earthquakes and volcanos in Japan, Java, United States, & Krakatoa

Physical Description

1 folder

Printed matter, 1890-1892. 1 folder.
Scope and Contents

includes an offprint of a memorial to Batchelder from the "Proceedings of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, Vol. XXVIII"

Physical Description

1 folder

Charleston, S.C., Earthquake Photographs, 1886. 1 box.
Scope and Contents

33 photographs (10 x 13 inches), mounted on boards, captioned by hand. The photographs document the destruction of the earthquake of August 31, 1886, in Charleston, S.C.

Physical Description

1 box

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