Educational Institutions
The history of education in antebellum America is increasingly drawing the
attention of scholars. In addition to more general works, the American
Antiquarian Society maintains four discrete collections which contain
materials relating to individual educational institutions. Three of these,
the Colleges and Universities Collection, the Schools and
Academies Collection, and the Fraternities Collection, include materials
published in the United States from 1821-1876, as well as secondary
sources
published through the present. Materials related to education published in
North America prior to 1821 are included in the Dated Books and Dated
Pamphlets Collection, and are accessible as described in that section of
this guidebook. The fourth collection, Foreign Colleges, includes material
published outside the United States through 1876, as well as secondary
sources.
The Colleges and Universities (American) Collection incorporates both the
official publications of specific institutions of higher education and
works about those institutions. Materials in this collection may
include: catalogs, president's reports, alumni catalogs, histories,
obituaries, class reports, registers, calendars and programs. Materials
pertaining to individual chapters of fraternal organizations also form
part of this collection, filed with the college with which the chapter is
affiliated. Many early college publications can also be found in the
Broadsides collection.
The Schools and Academies Collection encompasses pre-collegiate
educational institutions in the United States and includes publications
comparable to those in the Colleges and Universities
(American) Collection. The bulk of the collection is presently made up of
catalogs and histories.
The 1800s saw many changes in the American system of higher education,
including the gradual acceptance of women in institutions of higher
education and the development of women's colleges. It is not always clear
whether a female seminary should more properly be considered a college or
an academy, particularly since such seminaries often evolved over time. At
present, materials relating to female seminaries may be found both in the
Colleges and Universities (American) and in the Schools and Academies
collections, and researchers are advised to check both collections for
relevant materials.
The Fraternities Collection includes materials relating to the national
chapters of American academic fraternal organizations, primarily histories
and catalogs of members. As mentioned above, the histories and records of
individual chapters of a fraternity are filed in the Colleges and
Universities (American) Collection. This collection does not incorporate
materials related to non-academic fraternal orders, such as the
Freemasons, which may be found classifed in the G394 section of the
American History and Culture Collection.
The Foreign Colleges Collection is mainly composed of histories and alumni
registers for colleges and universities in Canada, Great Britain and
Liberia.
The Colleges and Universities (American), Schools and Academies, and
Fraternities collections are completely cataloged through 1840 and
accessible through the AAS online catalog. Some later materials in these
collections are also cataloged, but not comprehensively. Only selected
items from the Foreign Colleges collection have been cataloged. There is
some access to the Colleges and Universities (American), Schools and
Academies, and Foreign Colleges collections through the Society's general
card catalog, located in the Reading Room. Also in the Reading Room are
alphabetic and geographic checklists of institutions represented in the
Colleges and Universities (American) and Schools and Academies
collections. These checklists are located in the "Uncataloged
Collections" card files.
- Kathleen M. Haley, Cataloger, North American Imprints Program
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Harvard College. Catalogus eorum qui in Collegio
Harvardino (1776).
Young Ladies Literary Institute. Catalogue of the students, and award
of premiums
of the Young Ladies' Literary Institute (1846).
For current information on the cataloging status of this and
other AAS collections, choose "Collection Access" below.
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