Josiah Quincy, III

TL;DR -- So far, we have looked at a few of the Presidents of Harvard which came about from our studying the History of Harvard with respect to the unfolding of the U.S. The visit of Dickens happened during the term of Josiah Quincy, III which motivated this post. Too, he is heavily New England on his mother's side which is a continuing theme for our research. As well, his term was the first one after the Count Rumford donations changed Harvard which, too, will be reviewed. 

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While looking at the Heads of Harvard, we have been sampling somewhat driven by interests that map back to the mission of TGS, Inc. An important aspect of our mission is the 400 years of history from Cape Ann and the 250th celebration that is the focus of SAR/DAR. That is, history needs to be fleshed out with the reality of individuals and their families, in part. Of course, the total picture is larger. 

While looking at Felton (who is coming up for some attention), we got reference to a book which looks at the 300 years of Harvard (see History of Harvard). We found the Table of Contents. Lots to read, but Charles Dickens was one of those published in the book. Turns out that Dickens visited the U.S. in 1842. He was mostly in the east, lots of time in Boston where he liked the Harvard crowd, one of whom was Felton. An article in the Crimson noted who was there and met Dickens. A who's who which we could relate to having done this look at the Heads. 

Josiah Quincy, III was the Head at the time. We haven't mentioned generations yet with respect to these Heads, but Quincy was of the 6th generation (WikiTree: Quincy-306). His mother was of the Phillips family with a solid New England history. 

On Quincy's Wikipedia page, there is a photo of five Heads of Harvard. On the left was Quincy. On the right was Felton. The range of their terms was from 1829 (start of Quincy's term) to 1862 (end of Felton's term). That included the frontier years in the west prior to the Civil War. We will be looking at that history further using the Heads as guideposts.

Dickens' visit is only one of several events to consider. However, we need to mention the opinions that he wrote of American and Americans. Too, though, Dickens was quite perceptive. As an example, the below link is him writing about social classes which is very much apropos to the Harvard experience. Somewhat an aside, but not, as this was written during Quincy's term:

• The Haves and the Have Nots.

Too, it's apropos to the time of the year, where the Christmas Carol (written after the trip to the U.S.) gets attention, yearly. 

Remarks:  Modified: 12/26/2022

12/16/2021 -- Added the TL;DR line. 

12/26/2921 -- Some editing to make "The Haves and The Have Nots" stand out. 

12/29/2022 -- Benjamin Peirce was at Harvard and is listed as one of the few mathematicians from the USA in the XVIII Century. Quincy encouraged him; Benjamin became head of the mathematics department.