Apr 12, 2018 - Sale 2473

Sale 2473 - Lot 86

Price Realized: $ 500
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 600 - $ 900
(CONNECTICUT.) Statement of the Present Situation of Yale College. [10] manuscript pages plus final blank with docketing "Yale College Appeal." 4to, 9 1/2 x 8 inches, stitched; moderate wear, dampstaining and tape repair to final blank. [New Haven, CT], June 1826

Additional Details

A desperate appeal for funds. The college had spent virtually its entire endowment on a new dining hall and dormitory, and had minimal income to meet its regular expenses. "The existence of Yale College is wholly suspended on its reputation--on its power at all times of drawing together more than three hundred youth by its superior literary advantages." A new theology department and an endowed library fund are proposed, worthy causes but perhaps not quite in the spirit of crisis portrayed in the opening pages. It concludes "Each who contributes will enlarge a fountain whose streams shall fertilize his own borders. The memory of these benefactions will go down with the institution which they have cherished to distant generations." The 1826 graduating class of 101 was Yale's largest yet, by a wide margin. The appeal is unsigned; the handwriting does not seem to match that of Jeremiah Day, president at that time. It appears to be unpublished.