Background
Charles Folsom was born in Exeter, New Hampshire, the son of James Folsom and Sarah Gilman, and a descendant in the seventh generation of John Foulsham of Ilingham in Norfolk, who came to America in 1638.
Charles Folsom was born in Exeter, New Hampshire, the son of James Folsom and Sarah Gilman, and a descendant in the seventh generation of John Foulsham of Ilingham in Norfolk, who came to America in 1638.
He was fitted for college at Phillips Exeter Academy and graduated from Harvard in 1813. After a year’s teaching he began the study of theology, but his health failing, he obtained the post of chaplain and instructor in mathematics on the Washington, the flag-ship of the Mediterranean Squadron. One of his pupils at this time was David G. Farragut, who became his lifelong friend.
In the autumn of 1817 Folsom was appointed consul ad interim at Tunis where he found many ancient remains to interest him, but in 1819 he rejoined the squadron.
He became chaplain on the Columbus and private secretary to Commodore Bainbridge, with whom he visited the principal Mediterranean ports.
Returning to the United States, he began his connection with Harvard College. From 1821 to 1824 he was tutor in Latin, from 1821 to 1826 he taught Italian. and from 1823 to 1826 he was librarian of the Harvard Library. Here his helpful and generous spirit was reflected in the increasing liberality of the library administration.
For some fifteen years beginning in 1824 he was employed at the University Press, where he soon became a partner in the concern and corrector of the press.
In 1826-27 he collaborated with W. C. Bryant in editing the United States Review and Literary Gazette (see P. Godwin, A Biography of William Cullen Bryant, 1883, II, 213-28). Some years later, with Andrews Norton, he edited the Select Journal of Foreign Periodical Literature (4 vols. , 1833 - 34), the earliest publication of its kind, but neither periodical long endured.
From 1841 to 1845 Folsom conducted a school for young ladies in Temple Place, Boston, and in 1846 he became librarian of the Boston Athenaeum.
Flis scholarship, good judgment, dignity, and kindliness endeared him to the frequenters of the library. A letter which he wrote to Samuel A. Eliot, October 27, 1845, contains an admirable statement on the management and aims of a public library (Parsons, post).
In 1853 he took an active part in the New York conference of librarians, the first gathering of the kind held in the United States (Norton’s Literary and Educational Register for 1854, pp. 49-94).
After retiring from the Athenaeum in 1856 he spent the remainder of his days in Cambridge, always ready to devote his time and strength in helpful service to his friends, but leaving little from his own pen in print beyond a few contributions to the Proceedings of the Massachusetts Historical Society, the American Antiquarian Society, and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
In March 1869 he suffered an attack of paralysis from which he partly recovered, but a second stroke was fatal.
He rendered signal service to the writers of his day by his varied scholarship and diligent attention to detail, and was often called the Cambridge Aldus, but his “passion for exact and minute accuracy” often interfered with his administrative efficiency.
He was married, October 19, 1824, to Susanna Sarah McKean, daughter of Prof. Joseph McKean, of Cambridge.