Main content
Joseph Reade Letters
Notifications
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
Joseph Reade graduated from the College of New Jersey (now Princeton University) with the Class of 1796. After college, he joined his father's freighting business, where he made several trips abroad. In 1809 Reade was on a trip to Antigua when he became ill and died.
The collection consists of nineteen autograph letters sent by Joseph Reade to his father, John Reade, while Joseph was a student at the College of New Jersey (now Princeton University.) The letters provide a very brief picture of the life of a Princeton student in the late eighteenth century as Reade does not elaborate on his education in Princeton. In his early letters, Reade writes about decorating his college room, buying new shoes, the yellow fever breakout in New York in 1795, his curriculum, the difficulty of his classes and exams, the poor quality of the food on campus, and the Trustees of the College raising tuition several times; he asks his father for money, and promises not to associate with the wrong crowds and to focus on his school work. Reade describes a fire that broke out on December 5, 1795, which burned the roof of the Princeton Academy. At the time the College of New Jersey had only two faculty members, one of them its president Samuel Stanhope Smith, who was also one of Reade's teachers mentioned in his letters. Also included is a letter from Reade to his sister, Kate (Mrs. Nicholas W. Stuyvesant of New York), dated July 29, 1795.
The collection is organized by accession number.
The collection was formed as a result of a Departmental practice of combining into one collection material of various accessions relating to a particular person, family, or subject.
Nineteen letters to his father, purchased on November 23, 1953.
Letter to his sister Kate, gift of Rich Grunder-Brooks, via Alfred L. Bush, Curator, Western Americana Collection, Princeton University Library, on March 22, 1988 (AM88-68, 15031).
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 by Dina Britain in 2008. Finding aid written in 2008. Folder Inventory added by Hilde Creager (2015) in 2012.
No appraisal information is available.
People
Organization
- Publisher
- Manuscripts Division
- Finding Aid Date
- 2008
- Access Restrictions
-
The collection is open for research.
- Use Restrictions
-
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
1 folder
1 folder
1 folder