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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
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.
For preservation reasons, original analog and digital media may not be read or played back in the reading room. Users may visually inspect physical media but may not remove it from its enclosure. All analog audiovisual media must be digitized to preservation-quality standards prior to use. Audiovisual digitization requests are processed by an approved third-party vendor. Please note, the transfer time required can be as little as several weeks to as long as several months and there may be financial costs associated with the process. Requests should be directed through the Ask Us Form.
This collection was processed in 2001. Finding aid written in 2001.
No appraisal information is available.
People
Organization
Subject
- Civil engineers -- United States -- 19th century
- San Francisco Earthquake, Calif., 1906
- Earthquakes -- Japan -- 19th century
- Earthquakes -- Pennsylvania -- Philadelphia -- 19th century
- Earthquakes -- South Carolina -- Charleston -- 19th century -- Photographs
- Earthquakes -- United States -- 19th century
- Scientific expeditions -- United States -- Colorado -- 19th century
- Seismology
- Solar eclipses -- 1878
- Tsunamis
- Venus (Planet), Transit of -- 1874
- Venus (Planet), Transit of -- 1882
- Volcanoes
Place
- Publisher
- Manuscripts Division
- Finding Aid Date
- 2001
- Access Restrictions
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Collection is open for research use.
- Use Restrictions
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Single copies may be made for research purposes. To cite or publish quotations that fall within Fair Use, as defined under U. S. Copyright Law, no permission is required. For instances beyond Fair Use, it is the responsibility of the researcher to determine whether any permissions related to copyright, privacy, publicity, or any other rights are necessary for their intended use of the Library's materials, and to obtain all required permissions from any existing rights holders, if they have not already done so. Princeton University Library's Special Collections does not charge any permission or use fees for the publication of images of materials from our collections, nor does it require researchers to obtain its permission for said use. The department does request that its collections be properly cited and images credited. More detailed information can be found on the Copyright, Credit and Citations Guidelines page on our website. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact us through the Ask Us! form.
Collection Inventory
letters and clippings about earthquakes, worldwide
Physical Description4 boxes
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clippings and notes on earthquakes, tidal waves and volcanos, includes records copied from a catalog by [John William & Robert] Mallet
Physical Description1 folder
clippings and notes on earthquakes
Physical Description1 folder
letters, clippings, and printed matter on earthquakes and volcanos in Japan, Java, United States, & Krakatoa
Physical Description1 folder
includes an offprint of a memorial to Batchelder from the "Proceedings of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, Vol. XXVIII"
Physical Description1 folder
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 Description1 box