Call Number:

C1258

Repository:

Princeton University Library: Manuscripts Division

Extent:

• 1 box
• 0.4 linear feet

Language:

English

Preferred Citation:

Identification of specific item; Date (if known); Henry Clay Stewart Collection, Box and Folder Number; Special Collections, Princeton University Library.

Date:

1882-1884 (inclusive)

Creator:

Stewart, Henry Clay, 1863-1935

Form:

Cartes de visite (card photgraphs), Letters -- 19th century., Photograph albums -- 19th century, and Tintypes

Abstract:

Consists mostly of letters (1882-1884) Henry Clay Stewart sent to his parents while he was a student at the College of New Jersey (now Princeton University), providing an inside look at the life of a Princeton student towards the end of the nineteenth century.

Henry Clay Stewart graduated from the College of New Jersey (now Princeton University) in 1884.

The collection consists mostly of letters (1882-1884) Henry Clay Stewart sent to his parents, who lived in Washington, D.C., while he was a student at the College of New Jersey (now Princeton University.) The letters provide an inside look at the life of a Princeton student towards the end of the nineteenth century, as well as undergraduate attitudes about the town of Princeton. In the majority of his letters, Stewart asks his father for money to buy clothes, shoes, wallpaper, etc., and some letters include drawings. Inone of his early letters he describes meeting President Chester Arthur who came to enroll his son at Princeton. In other letters he writes about his classes, the curriculum and examinations, trips made to New York and Philadelphia, his friends, and his expenses and accounts. Stewart writes about the publishing of the Bric-A-Brac, the undergraduate yearbook, President McCosh, the junior class Promenade Concert at commencement, an outbreak of "Pink-eye" among students in 1883, the building of a new chemistry laboratory, singing with the Glee Club, his election as one of the officers to give an oration during the week of Class Day and commencement, and about the death of Prof. Arnold Guyot. In a letter dated March 6, 1884, Stewart mentions an editorial published in the New York Times and the Trenton Times regarding the difficulty of exams at the College.

In addition, there is a photograph album belonging to Stewart that contains thirty-three albumen cartes de visite and one tintype photograph, mostly of unidentified individuals, but including Civil War generals and some celebrities. There is a photograph of President Abraham Lincoln, Mary Todd Lincoln, and the funeral car on which Lincoln's remains were conveyed from the "Executive Mansion" on April 19, 1865. There is a photograph of the famous wedding of Tom Thumb known as "The Fairy Wedding Group," taken by Mathew Brady and inscribed by the four members of the wedding party. Most of the photographs were taken by well-known photographers, including R. W. Addis, C. S. Miles, M. J. Powers, J. A. Sheldon, Thomas Smith, and Henry Ulke.