An oration, delivered at Deerfield, on the Fourth of July, 1800. By Claudius Herrick. Printed at the request of the hearers.
(The 18th century was a wealth of knowledge, exploration a...)
The 18th century was a wealth of knowledge, exploration and rapidly growing technology and expanding record-keeping made possible by advances in the printing press. In its determination to preserve the century of revolution, Gale initiated a revolution of its own: digitization of epic proportions to preserve these invaluable works in the largest archive of its kind. Now for the first time these high-quality digital copies of original 18th century manuscripts are available in print, making them highly accessible to libraries, undergraduate students, and independent scholars.
Delve into what it was like to live during the eighteenth century by reading the first-hand accounts of everyday people, including city dwellers and farmers, businessmen and bankers, artisans and merchants, artists and their patrons, politicians and their constituents. Original texts make the American, French, and Industrial revolutions vividly contemporary.
++++
The below data was compiled from various identification fields in the bibliographic record of this title. This data is provided as an additional tool in helping to insure edition identification:
++++
Library of Congress
W021279
Half-title: An oration, delivered July 4th, 1800. Printer's monogram device on title page.
Greenfield, Massachusetts : Printed by Thomas Dickman, 1800. 19,1p. ; 8°
Edward Claudius Herrick was an American librarian and scientist. He was the first full-time librarian at Yale University from 1843 to 1858.
Background
Edward Herrick was born on February 24, 1811, in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. His father, Rev. Claudius Herrick, born in Southampton, Long Island, where his ancestor, James, had settled in 1640, was a graduate of Yale, and at the time of his son’s birth was conducting a school for young ladies on the present site of Battell Chapel. Edward’s mother was Hannah Pierpont, a descendant of Rev. James Pierpont, one of the founders of Yale.
Education
Edward received a good classical training, but an affection of the eyes prevented him from taking the college course. Later, for his scholarly attainments, Yale conferred upon Herrick the honorary degree of master of arts.
Career
At the age of sixteen Edward Herrick became clerk in the bookstore of Gen. Hezekiah Howe, a library of books of all descriptions, publishing house for the college, and the resort of professors and men of literary tastes. In 1835 he became one of its proprietors, but retired, financially embarrassed, three years later. During the next three years his occupations included service as clerk of the City of New Haven and in the office of the American Journal of Science.
The erection of a library building at Yale and Herrick’s appointment as librarian in 1843 began a new era in the library’s development and usefulness. He remained its head until 1858, when he resigned to give full time to the duties of treasurer of the college, to which office he had been elected in 1852. After the death of Professor James L. Kingsley, along with his other duties he edited the triennial catalogue, prepared the records of deceased graduates, and delved into the early history of the institution. Necessity in the form of financial obligations compelled him to do clerical and administrative work when he would gladly have occupied himself with other pursuits.
Herrick had an encyclopedic knowledge in a variety of fields, which others drew upon freely; but his major interest was in the natural sciences. In 1837 in collaboration with Professor James D- Dana he published in the American Journal of Science “Description of the Argulus Catostomi, a New Parasitic Crustaceous Animal. ” Thereafter until his death there was scarcely an issue of the Journal which did not have some contribution from him. In 1832 he began a study of the Hessian fly, which he carried on for years. A portion of a long correspondence with Dr. T. W. Harris on this and other subjects appears in S. H. Scudder’s Entomological Correspondence of Thuddeus William Harris (1869); and in the American Journal of Science (1841) he published “A Brief, Preliminary Account on the Hessian Fly and its Parasites. ”
The remarkable shower of meteors which occurred November 13, 1833, awoke his interest, an in the October and November numbers of the American Journal of Science for the year 1833 he propounded the theory of the periodic occurence of a large number of meteors about the 9th of August. News of the announcement of similar theory by M. Quetelet, director of the Observatory at Brussels, antedating Herrick’s, did not reach America until a few days after Herrick’s second article. A correspondence between the two, lasting for more than twenty years, ensued, and Quetelet in a letter written November 9, 1861, acknowledged great indebtedness to Herrick for observations made in this country. The aurora borealis also attracted his interest, and he corresponded and wrote on this phenomenon. Herrick died at the early age of fifty-one. Modest and frugal in his life, he left instructions that his funeral service be simple; biographical notices, as brief as possible; and the cost of his monument be limited to thirty dollars. A memorial window in Battell Chapel bears his name.
(The 18th century was a wealth of knowledge, exploration a...)
Personality
A tireless worker, never taking a vacation, Herrick performed every duty with extreme conscientiousness and marked business ability. His habitual manner, according to a contemporary, was that of one who had no time to lose. By taste and mental characteristics he was preeminently a scholar.
Quotes from others about the person
“There is no person living whose example and advice have had more influence on my scientific character than Herrick’s. From him I learnt how to investigate; his thorough method of research, and his accuracy were the models I studied. ” - Professor James D. Dana
Connections
Herrick never married and had few social responsibilities to distract him from his labors.