Count Rumford

This post continues to look at the periodical that Dr. Frank published, from 1908 to 1918, with his friends and deals with Count Rumford and Charles Crozat Converse.

First, who is Charles? My question, exactly.

Well, in Vol. VII, No. 1 of the Massachusetts Magazine, Charles wrote an article titled "Thompson in Connecticut" which is about an American who became Count Rumford. There is a seat at Harvard by that name. More on that, below.

Back to Charles, first. Godey's Magazine, Vol. 134 (pg 80) had a nice article about Charles. He was a lawyer and a musician with several known hymns. Also, he is written up on Wikipedia. And, some of his ancestry is covered in J. J. Putnam's book on Joseph Convers of Bedford. Also, see C. B. Harvey's Genealogical History of Hudson and Bergen Counties, New Jersey (pg 459) for a brief bio. In his TMM article, Charles mentions his family's effort to place a statue of Count Rumford in Boston (it is now in Moburn).

As an aside, Godey published the The Lady's Book from 1830 to 1878. That is a long run. The article on Charles (see above) is quite good.

Now, to Count Rumford. He was born Benjamin Thompson in 1753 in Woburn, MA. Being a Loyalist, he ended up in Europe and had quite good success. Benjamin was an early thermodynamics researcher: Rumford’s calorific and frigorific radiation. Also, he has wide influence. For the Rumford Medal that is given by the Royal Society, we see a whole lot of illustrious names. For instance, Michael Faraday received the award in 1846.

Benjamin, also, left funds to Harvard for the Rumford chair that was first held by Jacob Bigelow. When Jacob resigned, Benjamin Peirce (father of Charles Sanders Peirce - more on this later due to some interesting connections) got involved as a replacement was considered. Eventually, Benjamin Peirce got the Rumford chair rolled into the new ‘practical’ school (Science at Harvard University) related to science and engineering (that is, getting away from counting angels on a pin head). There is a lot to know about Benjamin Thompson (The Life and Legend of Count Rumford).

Note (12/24/2021) -- Harvard material on Rumford and his daughter. Also, Encyclopedia [.] com.

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Commercial site with links to information about Count Rumford.

Remarks: Modified: 12/24/2021

08/03/2017 -- Turns out that Benjamin's money gives us a chance to look at Harvard, its history, it roles, and its dreams (hopefully, more than exultation on endowment size). The platform? Quora: What is the coolest obscure history fact you know?

Another side of the story, Charles W. Eliot was supposed to get the Rumford chair in 1863. It went to Oliver Wolcott Gibbs.

10/21/2018 -- Used Benjamin in the context of meritocracy or not: Does Affirmative Action hurt Asians?

08/10/2020 -- How did I miss this jewel from Streets of Salem: Rumford Roasters.

10/10/2021 -- The Count features in our history of Harvard (a special project dedicated to Nathaniel Eaton). 

12/24/2021 -- Added link to Harvard material. 

U.S. and Harvard, I

TL;DR -- Looking at Harvard goes from 1636 to now, and one could think about the before times as well as what's next. Our interest is partly personal due to having connections over the toto of the life of the country and the school. Too, though, the U.S. might have started on the coast, but it has filled in a huge continent (or part of it) over these centuries. It was a mere 200 years ago, when the carving of the middle was the vogue and had everyone's attention. Well, not, as most who left the busyness of the east coast became unknowns out here. The recent Head's life motivated this review which is intended to be a usual affair as we go along. BTW, us is the US and its folks. 

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Having started to look at Harvard and its ties to the U.S. (which is us, the people - not just the brainy who need to be fed and told how to move one foot in front of the other -- as the embodiment of that notion of Winthrop quoting the Bible about humanity needing a 'light' or two, whether on a hill or not is immaterial, though we love lighthouses and gaslights) that we all live in and try to know, from several perspectives, it appeared useful to consider the 32 Heads of Harvard over the almost 400 years of its existence. 32? The official count is 29, however we added three. Two of these were in an interim position, for more than a year. So, they count. Then, we have the first one who is mentioned already in this blog. 

Note: There is a note that John Winthrop served as acting Head on two different occasions. So, the count would be 33 Heads. Winthrop is a descendant of the original Governor and taught Count Rumford in his youth. Other acting presidents are listed (Presidents of Harvard). 

See this post, History of Harvard, for the list which has a few names on it as of now. Of course, an early one was James Bryant Conant. It was a New Yorker article that got our attention, so we went to look at New England and family ties. From that, it was easy picking from various areas. For example, an important time is when Count Rumford funded Harvard's efforts at becoming more secular. John Thornton Kirkland was there at the time, but we have other names to run down. It seems like the Pearce family was more involved with setting up the technical focus for the institution.  

While doing this work, our principal modes of information are Wikipedia and WikiTree, both of which we support via editing and usage. But, we go to other sources, to boot. Right now, we look for and find New England connections, where we expect that later folks may have tenuous links in comparison with those from the early ages who would have had closer ties. 

In fact, our last two Heads were related, with Samuel Willard being the great-grandfather of Joseph Willard. We have been picking people by name and noticed the two Willards. Will there be others who relate more closely than New England cousin? As well, we expect to follow threads especially as we consider the frontier. Too, Harvard ties will hit all over the place and ought to be interesting for several reasons. 

One of these is U.S. history as it relates to its future. We have been dealing with the frontier for two years now (U.S. Interior) with respect to families. Many were new arrivals; lots of patriots were 1st or 2nd generation in their family. New England patriots were mostly the fifth generation. 

Presidents of Harvard

However, our net will be cast wide. The U.S. has many aspects of its history that never got attention. Part of this was technology. However, part of the oversight is due to the ruling mindset. The internet will allow more freedom. Actually, it'll allow more effective means for research. We already see that with the genealogical and historical approaches with family data. That is both good and bad. 

But, like with brainstorming, we look at things in order to get sufficient material to make those assessments that are necessary for maintaining society and sanity. What follows might seem wide-spread, or too unfocused, but it is not. Rather, it represents a mere scratch on the surface. Digging deeper? That is always a choice for which decision theory, hopefully, will be helpful. 

So, this post is motivated by noticing that Nathan Pusey was the next Head after Conant who was a descendant of Roger Conant of Cape Ann and Salem. It looked like Pusey's heritage was principally from Pennsylvania and the south. Then, the family moved west. Pusey was born in Iowa. His extended family was scattered around in that area west of the Mississippi. 

When did the family arrive? On a closer look, we can see that his paternal ancestors were with William Penn in the late 1600s. Some have done genealogical work on Pusey's; we will be looking into this further at some point. We had noticed that some of the Heads have very slim information about them, as if there is some popularity aspect that determines interest. 

Well, all of these Heads will be important, as we step through the many generations. Fortunately, we have family involved with Harvard, as well as in-laws and friends. So, personal motivation will help fill in the historic look. 

Let's consider this little tie. Pusey taught at the Riverdale School in New York City early in his career. He is mentioned in the 'Notable staff' section. Looking at the 'Notable alumni' section brought up several names that are of interest. President JFKennedy and his brother, RFK, are on the list. The school started in 1907, so the names are fairly contemporary. Others of a wide variety are Ratan Tata, Carly Simon, Cesar Romero, Steven Mnuchin, and others. 

But, so was Lawrence Ferlinghetti an attendee of the school. He is well-known for his literary work and his book store in San Francisco (City Lights Bookstore). Given our focus of late, what caught the eye was that his wife was the granddaughter of Edmund Kirby-Smith. Families went south and then west. Some came in and went west, like Pusey's. And, when west, there was the huge U.S. Interior involved which took over 100 years for a frontier experience to not be the norm. 

His folks were from Connecticut, but Kirby-Smith was born in Florida. After attending a military academy in Virginia, he went to West Point and served in several military campaigns. With the start of the Civil War, he was a superior officer. By the time of Bull Run, where he was wounded, he had held several positions of General Officer. After the war, he had several positions, ending up as professor of mathematics and botany. 

According to WikiTree (Smith-39301), his tree is fairly well filled in with lots of Connecticut connections. However, there are Massachusetts connections, as well, including Essex County. This is an example of a New England family from the north going south. Many had done so much earlier. 

One might wonder about the Harvard association as it seems fairly weak. But, it is not, just like the reference to West Point is there constantly when we look at the military history. Harvard is part of that long-arm of New England which threads heavily from one coast to the next across the large middle. And, then, of course, U.S.ers were very much active overseas from the beginning. 

Lots of things to look at and ponder. 

Remarks: Modified: 12/11/2021

12/11/2021 -- Add image for our portal (to truth).  

James Bryant Conant

TL;DR -- A New Yorker article was looking at diversity with respect to the smarties of the land. That is, who gets into Harvard. They bring up James Bryant Conant who also got into the Roxbury Latin School on testing. He was a chemist. On looking further, there wasn't any good information about his New England lineage (both sides). So, we started to make the links. Oh yes, that got us to Cape Ann, Count Rumford (whose money Harvard loved to get), JB being trained as a chemist at Harvard as part of their practical education, the SAT (and its influence by the AGCT), and more. Turns out that JB being under the radar is good for Gardner Research. We'll lift him to awareness as it allows us to have a focus on how Harvard behaved over the 400 years. 

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Several times, we have mentioned someone who ought to be better known in a genealogical sense but who is not. One reason? No descendants to remember the guy or gal. So, if they are not famous, who will do the research? But, JB is noted (as we see below). 

We can use Joseph Gardner and Ann Downing in this regard. Ann was the owner of that which became the Bradstreet house. She married Bradstreet after Joseph was killed in a conflict with the American Indians. And so, the house got Simon's name associated with it. 

Today, we were reading about diversity versus meritocracy in college, and James Bryant Conant came up. So, Conant? That's Cape Ann. Too, he was head of Harvard for a long while. And, he introduced the SAT which type of testing was pioneered by the U.S. Army (John started this page after a bit of research post retirement) as it tried to cope with the massive inflow associated with the WWI draft. 

So, per usual, after browsing Wikipedia, we went to find out about JB's pedigree. Nothing. What? So, we have provided a link from him (Conant-639) to his grandfather (Conant-1769) on WikiTree and will fill in the missing generation. 

Here are the steps that were taken. James Scott Conant was mentioned in Wikipedia and in WikiTree. However, there was not much found on the web about JS. Well, there is a Conant Book via Google Books: A History and Genealogy of the Conant Family. Turns out that JS is mentioned. And, JB is penciled in. Only his oldest sister is mentioned. But, using the book, one can track back to  Roger. 

This image does that as well as provide the Mass VR Project record on JS as son of Thomas.  

James Bryant Conant

in the Conant Book

But, on WikiTree, an exercise would be to see how far the book agrees with what modern researchers know. But doing that, we ended up at the Profile of JB's grandfather. So, now, it's a matter of looking at the detail a little more. 

Now, there are several Gardner connections. Roger came in to replace Thomas. Too, Seeth, daughter of Thomas and Margaret, married Joshua Conant, son of Roger. The book has several other references to Gardner/Gardiner.

BTW, Harvard? We have lots of references here, so far, and will have more. For one, JB was two administrations after CW Eliot who had expected to win the Rumford Chair (see Heads of Harvard and History of Harvard). 

We have Seeth marrying a Conant. Ann has Conant in her pedigree as did Dr. Frank. So, there are lots of associations to look into, as well as further diving into things pertaining to the Dorchester Company. 

Remarks: Modified: 09/11/2023

08/27/2021 -- With regard to JB Conant, Frontline did a show on the subject: A Brief History of the SAT. They used a photo of JB and described his influence in getting the testing industry set up. ... With respect to not much being documented about JD's family's history in the U.S., it looks like a subject worth pursuing. He worked on mustard gas as a chemist. As mentioned, he was trained at Harvard which would have him as a beneficiary of Count Rumford's money which was given to Harvard to establish something other than counting angels on a pinhead. We'll go into that more. 

08/29/2021 -- JB can be a good example of how to handle Cape Ann descendants with respect to the 400 years that followed their arrival. We need to gather the names and start to start a close look at these families.  

08/30/2021 -- In the TL;DR, changed Boston Latin School to Roxbury Latin School where JB got entry through his test scores. 

12/11/2021 -- Added link to Heads of Harvard and History of Harvard.  

04/07/2022 -- Changed Native Americans to American Indians. 

04/12/2022 -- JB penciled in under James Scott Conant, Google book. 

05/05/2022 -- We started the series after reading of the cuz and learned a lot by looking at the perspective of 400 years. As a 17-year- old, the one posting this was in the U.S. Army in the time period right after the Korean incident where the U.S. was licking its wounds. On the other hand, Conant who was precocious hung around Harvard while young. He was well behaved, obviously. Back to Eaton (1st head - more educated than most of his peers of the time), for a moment. Let's compare then with this time of JBC's being in the vicinity. Not with judgment; rather, autodidact humanity studies coupled with computers and physical sciences might be the framework. First, look at the original complaints, with respect to the myriad ships that were afloat at the time. Then? Consider the treatment of the regular sailor (if you don't know this, we'll explain). Also, we'll get more detailed as needed. But, "much ado about not much" comes to mind. As the poster has noted earlier, John Gardner's time out with the surveying crew was cotemporaneous with early Harvard experience. That's another type of comparative study. Conant, though, served militarily. He was involved with some of the modern methods that need types of review, too. It's interesting that besides bringing in testing, Conant is associated with the movement of the institution from serving the pampered of the U.S. to looking for all of the "best and brightest" everywhere. That is, from the pseudo-Brahmin (all societies have this) to the real thing. For now, here are three links, mainly for markers. Conant is not alone in the 400 years. Lots to look at.

• Dew of death ... 
• The hawk from Harvard ... 
• The Bombing and the Breakthrough ... 

07/09/2022 -- Updated the prior remark, slightly. We are starting to use the generational theme more and will include Conant as an example family: 1900 forward. Ran into another Conant: The American Character. 

09/11/2023 -- This summer, a movie came out about Oppenheimer. The Manhattan Project had Harvard involvement with the technical team. ...  

John Thornton Kirkland

TL;DR -- So, research got us to looking at Transcendentalism with respect to a continuing topic of concern which led to people and their connections, per usual. Of course, Emerson goes without saying. However, the Head of Harvard was instrumental, to boot. And, turns out that he was there when the Count Rumford monies came to be. Ah, many tangled twists to look at. 

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For some time, we have looked at various characters who were on this side of the waters during the last 400 years and who contributed to the great nation that we now see (U.S., if you must ask). Then, as we consider the characters, we look at their pedigree for various reasons that we will explain. For one thing, we look to see the New England connections, such as a relationship with the goings on in Massachusetts. 

For instance, after we got familiar with the early days where Essex County was the focus, we looked at how people and families ventured out of the area. Some of that was in the context of a church's mission efforts. This type of movement started early and accelerated after the split (the 250th of which is coming up in 1776). On a close look, we can find 'lost' generations. Along with that type of thrust, we had those who wandered by nature, such as the trapper/mountain men. Take Jedediah Strong Smith, as an example. Later, we had those involved with organizing the carving of the country. 

But, with the whole of the American experience at hand, we had to include academia in its various roles over the period. Say, even Harvard, from Eaton's time on. This will become the subject of this post as we leave in abeyance a lot of other material of interest. 

Last month, we ran across a later head of Harvard: James Bryant Conant (see Heads of Harvard and History of Harvard). Interesting guy and life, to say the least. Kin. Right now, we mention him due to his time and its importance. Hundred years ago we saw WWI and the Spanish Flu. Also, the start of massive testing of people. So many topics that just slid by without much consideration being given to the ins and outs. Oh yes, a while ago, in the context of 100 years ago, we ran across Count Rumford and his Harvard connections. A kin of his wrote of him in The Massachusetts Magazine which published early last century. But, on the note of heads of Harvard, the story of his money is interesting. BTW, Loyalists sensitivities, as well, are a topic that we touch upon now and then; tempering, somewhat, of the expected mania of the 250th. Who recalls much from 1976? 

Okay, technology is a focus. Both Conant and Rumford are known contributors there. But, we need to look at mathematics, too. Peirce, any one? Father and son, by the way. One thing that needs to be resurrected is some notion of how philosophy and mathematics might mix and do it well. Take transcendental numbers. Nice name. Basically, it is used to note that algebraic modes cannot apply. 

But, we know Transcendentalism was of New England. Without going into discussion as they can be tabled for now, we can drop names like Emerson (kin) and others. An unknown might be that the Unitarian effort of Harvard is associated with this thinking. And, of the time, the head of Harvard was John Thornton Kirkland. He married a Cabot but has his own New England pedigree. 

This is what is shown at WikiTree: John Thornton Kirkland (1770 - 1840). That would make him a son of the Fifth Generation which bore the brunt of the Revolution. His wife was the daughter of Hon. George Cabot. George is a descendant of Thomas Gardner and Margaret Fryer, so we will be looking at Kirkland further. 

For one thing, he is kin of A. Lawrence Lowell through the family of Rev. Francis Higginson who arrived before Winthrop but after Endicott and who is from an old family of Cambridge University. 

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As we have gone through our look at the Heads of Harvard (Wikipedia), we have put together the following list of pointers to foster discussion which we are adding to the early posts after our first which was on James Bryant Conant (dated - 26 Aug 2021).  

• History of Harvard (ours);
• History of the Presidency (Harvard); 
• graduates of Harvard (list initiated by Hoar); and 
• Harvard in the long history of the U.S. 

This has been a very useful series with tons of work now pending to bring the 'real' history of the U.S. to fore as an example of what future work and analysis will involve. 

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One person of note to our research is Col. T. W. Higginson who was old family and a Harvard graduate. He wrote of his lineage which he self-published in 1910. In that work, we have some sixty references to Harvard graduates, including two references to Presidents (Kirkland and Lowell). So, that is of interest. Some of the graduates were related by marriage to the family. The early Higginsons had an association with Theophilus Eaton who was the brother of Nathaniel. 

Remarks: Modified: 09/23/2022

12/11/2021 -- Added links to Heads of Harvard and History of Harvard.

09/23/2022 -- Added list of links. Noted relationship with A. Lawrence Lowell. While researching how families interleave, Kirkland came up. The family relationship could be step or in-law. The former was normal as people died early and their spouses married. The children could then be from any of the pairing where four spouse was not uncommon. 

Rev. Samuel Locke

TL;DR -- Samuel Locke was Head of Harvard in the period prior to the Revolution in which he is noted to have been a Patriot. He is one of the neglected Heads about whom little has been written or has been lifted to public attention. Given that our 250th view of those times is coming up, we expect to spend some time looking at Samuel. He was from Woburn, MA as was Count Rumford. 

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As we continue our look at Harvard, we have started to build a list of pertinent posts: History of Harvard (ours), Heads of Harvard (Wikipedia), History of the Presidency (Harvard), Catalogues of Harvard (Hathi Trust, mainly for the classes, years and graduates) and several posts in this blog concerning specifics of Presidents, their times, lives, and families (including information from WikiTree). We had been picking interesting Presidents due to their being pertinent to some point that we were researching starting with James Bryant Conant who had been mentioned in a New Yorker article in 2021. 

Grave of Samuel Locke

The subject of today's post comes from the period right before the Revolution which was 250 years ago, to which event SAR and DAR are  paying attention. Samuel Locke (WikiTree: Locke-1406, the Collection of his papers) came into his role in 1770 which was 150 years (six generations) after the noted arrival, but he had a short reign. 

Locke graduated from Harvard in 1755 during the reign of Edward Holyoke who has not been covered yet in this series of post (will be soon). Locke was ordained at Sherborn, MA. His Harvard position started in 1770 during a time of turmoil. We will look at that further. 

Locke has minimal information published about him in Wikipedia. The Biography at the Collection is much better and mentions his patriot stance in the Revolution. Locke was the first Head where we thought to look for information in the SAR/DAR databases and in the multi-volume Massachusetts Soldiers and Sailor collection; however, he died in 1777 (we will review other Heads of that time). The material on him given at the History of the Presidency site at Harvard can support more research. 

Future work will look at Woburn, MA, the birthplace of Locke. Benjamin Thompson, Count Rumford, was born there. Locke was followed by Winthrop, for a brief time. Thompson, when young, had attended, unofficially, lectures by Winthrop. 

Remarks: Modified: 06/28/2022

06/28/2022 -- Added link to post on Edward Holyoke. 

Ralph Waldo Emerson

TL;DR -- How could a study of Harvard only point to a foreigner? Even if it's Dickens? So, to balance that, we are picking Ralph Waldo Emerson for several reasons. He had a long-term relationship with the institution. Too, he was there when the Count Rumford monies came in and changed things. He was in the Divinity School. And, juxtaposing these two talents has a lot of potential for considering the U.S. and its roles: past, present, and future. 

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We got to Charles Dickens (1812-1870) from our study of the Heads of Harvard. On our first read of this material, we saw Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-182) mentioned. After looking at Josiah Quincy, III (1772-1864) whose biographer talked to Emerson, it is imperative that we give him some attention. 

Self-Reliance 

Ralph Waldo Emerson (WikiTree: Emerson-46) was New England to the core via both parental lines. On his mother's side, he has Mayflower lineage. Emerson was in Harvard in 1817 when he was 14. John Thornton Kirkland was the President, at the time. That was about the time that Count Rumford's impact on the institution with his Loyalist's donation. Though, Emerson stayed true to his calling in the Divinity School. The secularization moves would come later. This has not really been addressed in our research, yet, but is on the agenda. 

With respect to Dickens, Emerson went to one of his talks and noted the obvious talent. That was during the 1842 visit. It was in the later visit by Dickens, in the 1860s, when the two had a chance to talk further. There were several commonalities, such as being abolitionists. And, they both had deep insights with disparate means of expressing these. Their two talents represent something that we have not learned to balance and must. 

A few mentions of Emerson by Dickens are noted in an article on Dickens meeting with Edgar Allen Poe. We mentioned Poe, earlier, in a post on Magazines. 

This is a cursory mention, mainly serving as a placeholder and reminder. We have been paying more attention of late to those who went west. Dickens bailed out at St. Louis. The travel was arduous. We really need to get the proper view back on what people did in the middle of the country to establish that part of the nation. With Emerson entering the picture, we can go back and look at the east coast over the same timeframes of the generations of the country. 

Reminder: Emerson is of the 7th generation. 

Remarks: Modified: 12/19/2021

12/19/2021 --  Put photo of Emerson with link to Self-Reliance. Actually, what I know now of Emerson and Harvard, the latter has dropped a load of sins. He grew up there, after his father died. For general purposes, we need to mention Walt Whitman. 

Charles William Eliot

TL;DR -- CW Eliot's name came up earlier when we were looking at the effects of the gift to Harvard by Count Rumford. At that time, we merely noted that CW wished to obtain appointment to the Rumford Chair put into place by Benjamin Peirce (cuz). CW did not get that and went to spend time in Europe. That little sojourn was instrumental in later changes to Harvard that CW accomplished. Also, it was in the reign of CW Eliot that Leland Stanford came to talk using money to endow education. 

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Today's browse brought up a familiar name which got us looking closer at the subject of Harvard in Massachusetts, in New England, in the U.S. and in the world. Earlier, we had posts that looked at James Bryant Conant (1893-1978, #23 1933-1953) and, then, John Thornton Kirkland (1770-1840, #14 1810-1828) due to topical reasons. Notice the numbers on the 2nd timeframe for each. It is their order in serving as Head of Harvard (see History of Harvard). Too, though, notice the time span with respect to their deaths which was over a century. We just looked at that. 

As the name that came up was Charles William Eliot (1834-1926. #21 1869-1909). Given the gaps that are still there, we have several more names to look at. The next one will be considered for his role in the split whose 250th is coming up (SAR/DAR). 

All three of these gentlemen are of early New England heritage, have family ties with Ann, and played a role in the History of Harvard. For instance, one ancestor is Thomas' 2nd wife, Demaris Shattuck. His WikiTree Profile is sparse to say the least. 

Charles was initially of interest for two reasons. There are more that will be looked at. But, he was a candidate for the Rumford Chair. The money for this came in during the time of John T. Kirkland. We will look at that from several angles dealing with the Count's work and writings plus topics still pending some type of discussion. When Charles did not get the chair, he went to Europe for a couple of years. One thing he looked at was the roles of the university in the culture. His study experience prepared him for his long tenure and resulted in his leading Harvard to the future. So, lots to look at there as we are on the verge of changes that are even more drastic. 

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His biography at Harvard Square Library provides a wonderful take on Eliot's motivations for change. 

Remarks: Modified: 09/01/2022

10/30/2021 --  Added the TL;DR. 

12/11/2021 -- Added link to History of Harvard.

 01/06/2022 -- Leland and Jane Stanford visited Harvard in Eliot's time. Oh well, kind of liked the 'hick' story. Stanford, yeah. 

01/07/2022 -- Eliot started the Gold Coast scheme for housing which was halted by Lowell. ... Tributes to Charles William Elliott (The Massachusetts Magazine, Vol. II, No 2) by Edward J. James, Booker T. Washington, David Starr Jordan, Cyrus Northrup. 

09/01/2022 -- While doing post for Jared Sparks and James Walker, we ran into the Harvard Square Library which keeps us aware of Unitarian ways and their benefits. Harvard plays, specifically, in this arena. The HSL is now a regular resource. 

John Winthrop (educator)

TL;DR -- John Winthrop's post is imperative. He served twice, before and after the term of Samuel Locke, while he was a Professor, as well. 

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We continue covering all of the Heads of Harvard (Wikipedia) with John Winthrop (Wikipedia) who served briefly before and after the term of Samuel Locke. With this post, we have covered all of the Heads of Harvard from Eaton (1636) to Cornelius Conway Felton (1860) which is a nice 200-year span.  

As we look at the Heads, we have done some research related to their families, mostly using WikiTree. The terms of Winthrop were in 1769 and 1773. Winthrop (WikiTree) is old Massachusetts being a descendant of the John Winthrop who came in 1630 with a fleet of settlers, many of whom were of families with old English pedigree. 

Later, we will post more about Winthrop's life.    

• History of Harvard (ours);
• History of the Presidency (Harvard); 
• graduates of Harvard (list initiated by Hoar); and 
• Harvard in the long history of the U.S. 

Winthrop died in 1779. More later (see following notes).

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Notes:

1. John Winthrop was a Professor of Harvard. We mentioned him earlier with respect to the early years of Count Rumford who attended Winthrop's classes as a youngster and will follow that theme a little further. Just added notes to the Wikipedia Talk page with three references to Rumford, including mention of Loammi Baldwin who attended Winthrop's classes with Rumford. 

2.  ...

Remarks: Modified: 09/17/2022

09/17/2022 -- John Winthrop, like some of the others, is kin which will be an interesting bit of study. 'kin' covers both aspects, blood and collateral (say, in-laws). This is a common occurrence in New England that provides endless amounts of research which could only happen with technological assists. 

Rev. John Wise

TL;DR -- Everyone talks of the 250th. Wait a moment. That's a year away. And so, let's use the coming days to look at the Revolution in new ways that represent the marvels of the modern times.While, at the same time, look to the idiciocies that potentially loom and recognize them for what they are. We suggests a focal of the human variety. Aside: in 2026, we have the 400th of what became Salem. 

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Now, we are a few days prior to the commeration of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. Lots has been written and said about that event. Some people have been mentioned (too many to list). Many (most) were not. Even Dr. Frank's look at the Siege of Boston only mentions the officers. 

And, at the same time, we are approaching one year to the 1776 event's celebration. Meanwhile, we can use this year to dig in. Sometimes, we'll dive deeply. Mostly, we expect to mention pending research items that would keep us busy for a very long time. 

So, this week's look back is from the timeframe of 249 years having elapsed. The 250th, then, is next year. What else is associated with 2026? Well, 100 years ago, Salem celebrated its 300th. You see, the country was too new to do the 200th. Besides, the War of 1812 had just ended. "Manifest destiny" was beginning to bloom. All of that is already on the list. The next year, we will specifically deal with the Revolution and the 365 days leading up to the big split on paper. 

Given the times, Salem MA sponsored a pageant which was a play about the early days leading up to the establishment of the Naumkeag settlement. Cape Ann has been mentioned a lot here; since last year, we are in a new era there as digital records indicate that some of the information might have been other than correct. Typical. 

Anyway, the Pageant of Salem was performed in the towns of Essex County and elsewhere. Of note, most of the characters were played by descendants. We can look at that closer. Too, many of those of the time of the 300th were descendants, too, of participants in the Revolution (both sides - warning, we also look at Loyalists - say, Count Rumford who gave money to Harvard so that that provincial institute could modernize - needless to say, Rumford and later Gibbs will again get time in the spotlight this year). 

Recently, we looked at a Roxbury (muddy waters, whatever, Suffolk County) family who married into a family at Ipswich (Essex County) or was it the other way: Gardner married Wise. In this case, Abigail Gardner was the sister of Mary Gardner Boylston. They were both grand aunts of a causalty (Col. Thomas Gardner) of Bunker Hill which we just looked at. 

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Abigail married Rev. John Wise. Who is this guy? Well, large male. Harvard graduate. As we see, Reverend. Was in an area of what was/is known as Ipswich. That little place on the waters even produced seagoing vessels. The American spirit, so to speak. 

But, this is about John. He has lots of tales about him. One dealt with his early years when he was out with a hunting party. They ran into some Native Americans so as the potential for violence rose. But, John's party negotiated a wrestling match with John being chosen. The tale notes that the Reverend-to-be won and did so by throwing his opponent several feet in a remarkable feat of strength. 

Ipswich MA

One can just imagine this guy. Not like John Adams who fled the farm to be a lawyer. Nope, Rev John was involved with physical labor all of this life. And, he was noted to be an inspiration of the Declaration of Independence. The image is about the 1689 event where the colonials rebelled against taxes. Mind you, from 1620 until later in the 1640s, the colonials were more or less here and living freely. We will look at what led up to this event. Why? When the Patriots were getting hot-headed (again, a cousin, Samuel of the beer), someone published a pamphlet written by Rev. John decades prior.  

We need more types like Rev. Wise, especially in the age with the digital illusions grasp people psychologically and wreck havocs on lives that way. And, let's count the other ways of mischief. Don't doubt that we can do this. Well, that needs to be our technology focus which will go forward with our arguing the importance of psychology and other studies that deal with humans. 

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Aside: We have waited a whole for this: in 2026, we have the 400th of Conant's moving from Cape Ann to Naumkeag which became Salem: Massey's Cove. 

Remarks: Modified: 07/01/2025

07/01/2025 -  

History of Harvard

TL;DR -- Over the decade of research, we have run into Harvard lots of times. And so, we need to collect those things seen and written about in a sequence that depicts several things. One of these would be the influence of the times upon Harvard and vice versa. The 1600s got us bogged down. We will be at this for a while updating this post and creating others. 

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This is one of our quests related to the upcoming 400th. We have some time but need to get to work early since there is a lot to do. Harvard has several histories. This one is from the view of the families here for 400 years with members related to Harvard several ways which will be further categorized as we find material. Anyone interested in helping, please contact us. 

We will start with this brief list in a temporal order. It follows, somewhat, the order in this Quora article titled: What is the coolest obscure historical fact you know? We chose the topic of Harvard having a parallel history with the U.S. 

• 1600s - We have seen much material but no coherent overview. Nathaniel Eaton was the first known head according to Wikipedia. However, on the Wikipedia page, his educational experience is out of order. There are several posts in this blog that refer to Nathaniel: search in blog on Eaton. A search in Google (hasty pudding - Nathaniel Eaton) will bring up lots of repeats of the story. On the other hand, this look at the man by the Eaton Families Association needs to be added to the pile (starting on page 13 - A Discussion of Nathaniel Eaton’s Reputation as Seen by History). A few more views: Hanging Crepe in Trump Land—It’s Harvard’s Birthday, Boston 400/Harvard, ...  Moving on: Harvard’s First President: “A Man for All Seasons”. On Dunster. ...
• 1700s - Loosening morals and more. Revolution baby. He helped Transcendentalism to transcend. Rumford Chair of Physics.
• 1800s - Long century of activity on the interior. Post mid-century, as the civil war loomed, most southern students left when Cornelius Conway Felton was President. The turmoil occurred during Thomas Hill's period. C. W. Eliot began his reign in 1869. 
• 1900s - Several topics want attention. Let's start with testing. 
• 2000s - Harvard releases report on its involvement with slavery. 

Note: We will be editing this post continuously. As topics become too big, we'll split out other posts. The motive is to cover the whole of the history from the time of Nathaniel (kin) until the present time with a focus on people other than Harvard staff and students, most of which will be American. 

Which this guy was firstly. That is, he was here before he went back over there. 

Count Rumford
See our first look at the guy

This guy funded the secular revolution at Harvard. How did they go adrift? Of course, one has to also ask, did they? Lots to discuss. 

Heads of Harvard 

0. Nathaniel Eaton, 1. Henry Dunster, 2. Charles Chauncy, 3. Leonard Hoar, 

4. Urian Oakes, 5. John Rogers, 6. Increase Mather, - Samuel Willard, 

7. John Leverett, 8. Benjamin Wadsworth, 9. Edward Holyoke, - John Winthrop, 

10. Samuel Locke, - John Winthrop, 11. Samuel Langdon, 

                                                                12. Joseph Willard, - Eliphalet Pearson, 

13. Samuel Webber, 14. John Thornton Kirkland, 15. Josiah Quincy, III, 

16. Edward Everett, 17. Jared Sparks, 18. James Walker, 

19. Cornelius Conway Felton, 20. Thomas Hill, 21. Charles William Eliot, 

22. A. Lawrence Lowell, 23. James Bryant Conant, 24. Nathan Pusey, 

25. Derek Bok, 26. Neil Rudenstine, 27. Lawrence Summers, 

28. Drew Gilpin Faust, 29. Lawrence Bacow 

In its own words: History of the Presidency. Goes back to Dunster. Also, Hasty Pudding, of which many on this list were members. 

Topical items, mostly. This will be a list to motivate future research. Will add the date it was entered.

• 03/09/2022 -- Obama joins list of seven presidents with Harvard degrees. The other seven were: John Adams; John Q. Adams; Rutherford B. Hayes; Theodore Roosevelt; Franklin D. Roosevelt; and John F. Kennedy. ... Amid the Old Burying Ground. Gosh, buried there are Dunster, Chauncy, Oakes, Leverett, Wadsworth, Joseph Willard, and Holyoke. ... Gripes between bites. Starts with " defeatin' Eaton over eatin' " and continues. Like that. ... 
• ...

Remarks: Modified: 07/30/2025

12/06/2021 -- Add Eliphalet Pearson. Changed pointer for Eliphalet to Wikipedia. ... Add in Samuel and Joseph Willard. 

12/10/2021 -- Add Nathan Pusey who followed James Bryant Conant. 

12/11/2021 -- Add numbers, format, add Henry Dunster (kin). Add John Winthrop as acting at two different times. 

12/15/2021 -- Add link for Joshiah Quincy, III. His mother is hugely of New England pedigree. 

12/24/2021 -- The feed finally provided me with a page. Had been looking at the Hasty Pudding material. Harvard material on Rumford and his daughter. 

01/06/2022 -- We'll have to build a source list, starting with Richard Norton Smith's The Harvard Century: The Making of a University to a Nation (1998) and Elizabeth Tucker's Campus Legends: A Handbook (2005) (quote: Goat's dung and mackerel guts rival modern "fast food" legends in the degree of disgust that they inspire. From this account and others, it seems clear that America's first college students enjoyed telling stories that highlighted -- and probably exaggerated -- the most shocking details of their miserable meals at college) which can be previewed. ... Add Charles William Elliott.  

01/17/2022 -- Add Samuel Webber. There is conflicting information about him published. So, we will check that out. Too, he's of a family that is little known, comparatively. Then, his mathematical interests are appealing, for several reasons.  

01/23/2022 -- Add Charles Chauncy who followed Henry Dunster. It was in Chauncey's term that the first Native American graduated, in 1665. 

02/05/2022 -- Add Samuel Locke. We are now talking about periods related to the Revolution (250th coming up). 

02/09/2022 -- Add Leonard Hoar. He initiated the Catalogue. 

02/16/2022 -- Add Increase Mather and put in link for Samuel Locke. Add a little verbiage for the 1800s. 

03/09/2022 -- Add Drew Gilpin Faust. First woman President. Next up will be to get the narrative up to date. Started the topical list (nice to know of the Gazette). Add John Leverett.

04/05/2022 -- In preparation of bringing in another Head, changed the list to have three per line, for now. 

04/07/2022 -- Add Benjamin Wadsworth whose time was of the early transformation to modern moral declination (complexity, our forte). 

04/18/2022 -- Add Urian Oakes, the 4th Head. 

04/24/2022 -- As we involve Harvard in our look at the U.S. through time, we will bring in the English aspect via comparative views about Oxford and Cambridge. 

04/29/2022 -- Add Edward Everett. #16 of 29 or so. Not quite the middle, but close enough. 

05/02/2022 -- Add link to Harvard's report on slavery. 

05/17/2022 -- Add John Rogers. 

06/28/2022 -- Add Edward Holyoke. Corporal punishment pops up? 

07/16/2022 -- Add Samuel Langdon, D.A.R. Patriot. Irritated Harvard Tories. 

07/22/2022 -- Add Nathaniel Eaton. 

08/13/2022 -- Add post on Cornelius Conway Felton. 

08/31/2022 -- Add Jared Sparks. 

09/01/2022 -- Add James Walker. 

09/17/2022 -- Add John Winthrop (twice in an interim role). 

10/15/2022 -- Add Thomas Hill. This brings us to the 1930s, or 300 years. That's enough. Let's go back and start with the interesting folks and their times. 

10/31/2022 -- Add Derek Bok. Now, will do the two final ones (Rudenstine and Summers). We want to help make the 400ths a time of reflection and regaining of knowledge. 

07/30/2025 -- George Washington stayed at two houses related to Harvard during the Siege of Boston. 

2021, time of the pandemic, II

TL;DR -- Continuation of the pandemic theme from before. We look at posts from the remainder of 2021 and at the themes covered which are of a wide variety. 

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Part 2 of 2 (Part 1). 

In 2020, restrictions changed our activity. Like most, we did computer work over the time of the pandemic but had been doing such work anyway. What was different was the focus. 

We looked more at local issues. But, we had anyway (to wit, our post of Flyover country). By 2021, we were rolling along and did more posts. Part 1 looks at those from Jan through Jun. Now, we'll pick up with posts from Jul through Dec.

The 250th came more into focus. We also spent a little time looking at S.A.R. which is the sons version of what the daughters did with D.A.R. But, AI started to come into focus after almost a decade of making headway (according to some views - the jury is still out) and claiming attention: Jeopardy win; Go win; modeling complicated lab work (Google had several of these); ... 

But, we had a post (Carving the land) which was motivated by our study of the activities out of St. Louis which was a hub for land management of the U.S and its west.  At the same time, Gloucester was approaching its 400th. We had an interest in that as the Dorchester crew came into that area in 1623. But, the great northwest? Michigan was approaching its 200th. 

Another twist was diving into the history of Harvard starting with an introduction to James Bryan Conant. He was a chemist and professor. He had wanted the Rumford chair. But, ended up in Europe and came back to become a Head of Harvard. At the same time, we decided that the long reach of New England was a theme of interest, as we had settled on All Things Gardner (22 Aug 1485) with respect to the many families with the name. 

Oh yes, AI was proposed for genealogy work. Again, that is an ongoing bit of study. But, we started to look at the genealogy of Harvard Heads. Many were of old New England families. D.A.R. found an interest in the 400th as well by starting work on identifying Patriot to Passenger (in this case, Mayflower) families. We took on Cape Ann to Patriot. 

Houses? While looking at the Dudley family, we got into houses of note. There were two in New Hampshire of interest. Both were built by relatives of descendants of Thomas and Margaret. One is now associated with the Society of Cincinatti. That brings up the other side of a coin. We honor the Loyalists of the family. Count Rumford mentioned above was a Loyalist who found success in Europe and left money to Harvard. 

The technology focus became more prominent. IEEE had an article: How dumb is AI? A few years later, we saw a general amount of interest. One observaton? Humans degradate themselves to make technology look good. Yes. Expect to see that theme periodically. 

A photo of the grandmother Dr. Frank (and 2nd great of Ann and her siblings) was found. We got that published. Generations? An eternal topic. Looking at this, we can say that the Revolution (250th now in progress) was done by the 5th generation. More on these. 

We picked up Dr. Frank's series on the Siege of Boston that were published in The Massachusetts Magazine, with issues four times a year for a decade. He started the series with Col. John Glover of Marble head. One of his vessels was the first vessel of the U.S. Navy. 

We continued our interest in rivers, as we mentioned in Part 1. The trails and railroads are always of interest, as well. But, jumping to technology now, we looked at John's favorite site dealing with the mathematics of physics. It was of the old style until a few years ago. The old stuff is still there and serves as the basis for the new. 

Aside, we are seeing lots of websites being done using new methods. Our prediction is that this method is not as stable as claimed and so have failures that are hugely visible and that will have negative repercussions. But, other than be aware, we have to wait and see. 

Why? If one looks at the whole campus of techies, there is no solution yet. Experiments have become a mainstay of life. But, take a plane, experiment types of these are not used to carry passengers. 

Remarks: Modified: 06/01/2025

06/01/2025 - 

Benjamin Peirce

TL;DR -- We note the memoir of Benjamin Peirce which gives a little of his heritage on which he put Thomas Gardner as well as other New England families. We were familiar with the work of his son, Charles S. Peirce, and looked further at Benjamin who graduated from Harvard in 1829. Benjamin was later head of the mathematics department. Also, he was there when the inheritance from Count Rumford was processed and helped determine the decision on expenditure of the gift.  

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We have Benjamin's son, Charles Sanders Peirce, the logician and pragmatist, on our descendants list. I had run across the work of Charles in my younger years in an academic environment and found his work to be useful throughout my working years. So, Charles had to be on the list when I ran across his name while doing descendants searches a while ago.

Memoir of Benjamin Peirce
Essex Institute Historical Collections

Today, while researching the Quaker involvement of the Gardners (note earlier John Goff article), I ran across this memoir by Charles' father, Benjamin Peirce. The memoir can be found in the Essex Institute Historical Collections. Benjamin Robert S. Rantoul read this memoir at the May 16, 1881 meeting. Here is a link to the digitized version (points to pg 172, where the charts start) of Memoir of Benjamin Peirce [1881, Essex Institute Historical Collections], at Google.

The image shows part of page 172 which deals with the earliest generations in colonial New England. I thought the whole chart to be interesting due the familiar families. But, the Gardner part of the tree is especially interesting.

I'm doing this post to add to the material related to the early Thomas Gardners (see last post). In fact, there may be several of these as we look at what is behind the different viewpoints and assess how to clarify the matter for future researchers.

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Aside: I recently ran into an error that is in a known book. This error has been propagated widely. Now, I have established the problem. From a brief search, some know of the problem; many others seem to not to have stumbled upon it. But, you know, those who have skirted the problem didn't leave any marker for later travelers. Why do we have to let people fall into the quicksand themselves? There ought to be some published errata that is available for access (perhaps it exists already somewhere). Of course, web-based presentation is implied here. I still rankle at the notion that Gutenberg's technology is the forever means for publication. It may be that people are saying that fluidity is only one state of matter; as in, we need to solidify things (which is what print does) now and then, even if it just allows a snapshot of a point-in-time state of knowledge.

Remarks: Modified: 12/29/2022

08/29/2013 -- WDYTYA episode has an estimate of 1000 person hours having been used for research.

07/15/2015 -- We have a project that is looking at Sherborne, Dorset (note references to records of a marriage of Thomas and Margaret plus baptism of the kids - also, note reference to abductive reasoning which Benjamin's son, Charles, helped establish) as place of origins. As one would expect, there have been many views on this subject over the past 350 years. One of these is expressed in the above image, from Benjamin's perspective. It has son, Thomas, as the one whose wife was Margaret Fryer (see Number of wives and John Farmer's view). ... Not only is Benjamin a descendant of Thomas through his first son, he is also a descendant of Seeth (see Table IV, pg 175). ... An analog of the required method might be paleoichnology (large tales from little data).

08/03/2017 -- Benjamin Peirce was instrumental in getting the Harvard school of science and engineering started when Jacob Bigelow resigned as the Rumford chair.

12/03/2017 - Benjamin died in 1880. The Memoir was read by Robert S. Rantoul. We will see him, again, as he was a contributor to Dr. Frank's The Massachusetts Magazine.

12/29/2022 -- Charles S. Peirce, Benjamin's son, was featured in a post about TGS, Inc. plans to focus on technology. Benjamin was at Harvard (Class of 1829) and is listed as one of the few mathematicians from the USA in the XVIII Century. Benjamin could not afford to go to Europe for further education and stayed in the area. Eventually, he got back to Harvard where he was head of the mathematics department. But, from our view, his life is even more interesting than earlier as this is the time of the western expansion driven, largely, from New England. It will be nice to have a Harvard tie in. 

Henry Dunster

TL;DR -- Henry Dunster is the 1st Head of Harvard, coming in not long after Nathaniel Eaton's tenure was ended. Dunster had fallings out with the Puritans, as well. 

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We have been adding Heads of Harvard to a list while taking an initial look at each with respect to time and affiliations, including family and New England. Our research started with a recent one, comparatively, and we have done a few more. But, we missed the first one and are correcting that oversight with this post. As mentioned, we mostly are using links, in our posts, to Wikipedia and WikiTree for the first pass and will be diving deeply into the term of each along with our review of U.S. history from the time of the revolution until the time that the frontiers were mostly settled. That get us from 250 years ago (plus or minus a few years) to the early part of the 20th century.  

Well, our list of heads is in our post titled History of Harvard. We were adding numbers to show where there are still gaps and noticed that we ought to include #1, Henry Dunster to anchor the list. Dunster held the position from 1640 to 1654. He took over after Nathaniel Eaton found himself facing the first American cancel culture. We need to discuss that and will, at some point. 

Dunster came over in 1640 after teaching for a time. He earned his bachelor's and master's degree from Magdalene College, Cambridge. Dunster experienced some controversy in conflict with Puritan views which led to him leaving the position in 1654. 

Henry Dunster (WikiTree - Dunster-36) requires a little work on his Profile. But, that there is a lack of interest in researching seems apparent for some of these profiles (we have only looked at a small set of the total). 

We will get back to his term as we look at a few more profiles and establish a framework for our study. We started this review with Count Rumford's contribution as a key item. However, going back before the U.S. Revolution will require more concern about English culture and its influences.  

Remarks: Modified: 12/15/2021

12/15/2021 -- Added the TL;DR line.  

Cambridge

TL;DR -- We have been looking at the History of Harvard as a way to study the history of the U.S. Several times, we have mentioned older universities. This is the first post dealing with the subject where we note that both Oxford and Cambridge have had ties from the beginning, back to Rev. John White and before. 

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One of our research thrusts has been to parallel Harvard's experiences via looking at the Heads (with Benjamin Wadsworth and Urian Oakes as our latest entries) over the centuries with that of the U.S., its colonial beginning, and post Civil War accomplishments. But, we realize that we have to consider the old country in our analysis, so we will start to look at the Universities (Oxford, Cambridge) with respect to U.S. history. 

For instance, "Cambridge is the UK’s leading university for graduate studies in American History" and offers regular seminars to the public on the subject. On the other hand, Oxford claims "particularly strong connections" to the U.S. We have mentioned comparing events at Harvard over the years with its peers in the old world without being specific. Now, we are looking to use both. 

For instance, Rev. John White's education is of Oxford. On looking at his extended family, there are many from Cambridge, including Ann's ancestors. John Harvard was a Cambridge man; Harvard was modeled on Cambridge. 

The alumni list of both schools include many of the U.S., including modern day scholars. Of interest is, that of the first class of Harvard (1642), the majority went back to England. One of these was George Downing the namesake of Downing Street. They went back to an England in turmoil. Nathaniel Brewster studied further at Trinity College, Dublin and served under Henry Cromwell, son of Oliver. 

As well as current-event issues, technology will be a focus. One of our tasks is to follow technology over the four centuries as it evolved here and over there with quite a bit of disparity until after the Revolution. Too, we will look at classes and trace the influence of graduates. 

Reminder: Count Rumford about whom we will have further discussion. 

In the arts, we can point to Ezra Pound who was at all three places. In academia, the first Head of Harvard, Henry Dunster, studied at Cambridge. Stepping back to a subject still pending some attention, the prior Harvard Head, Nathaniel Eaton, was a Cambridge graduate who later earned MD and PhD degrees from the University of Padua. Those are samples from the modern era and from the beginning with lots of time in-between to fill in. 

Remarks: Modified: 12/20/2022

04/24/2022 -- 

Gardner's Beacon, Vol VII, No 2

This issue of Gardner's Beacon gives additional reporting on our research activity. Too, we have the first print of The Gardner Annals in which issues of Gardner's Beacon (Vols. I, II, III) are provided in an appendix. This print edition included Vols. I and II of the TGA.

GB Vol VII_No2

In the current issue of Gardner's Beacon, we continue to look at The Massachusetts Magazine. All of the issues have now been reviewed with their Table of Contents reprinted. Too, we have looked closely at a few articles that are pertinent. Both Dr. Frank and his sister, Lucie, were regular contributors to the magazine. Too, Charles Alcott Flagg, of the Library of Congress, wrote a regular series on western pioneers from Massachusetts to Michigan.

Col. Thomas Wentworth Higginson was an early advisory editor. He will be one of the TMM supporters who will be featured in Vol. IV, No. 1 of The Gardner Annals which is undergoing preparation. A descendant of Count Rumford provides a short article in the TMM about efforts related to honoring the gentleman. We will take a closer look. Vol IV will print with Vol. III in the next printing to be ready in early spring of 2018.

The current print version of the TGA (Vol I and II) and GB (Vol I, II, III) can be obtained through emailing for instructions: publications@TGSoc.org.

See Vol. VII, No. 2 of Gardner's Beacon for the issue (PDF).

Remarks: Modified: 12/01/2017

11/30/2017 --

Charles Horton Cooley

TL;DR -- The Economist is British and published weekly. We like their humor plus their take on matters across the globe. But, given that England is a large part of our history, we appreciate their in-depth reports on things over here. Recently, they mentioned Charles Horton Cooley. Per usual, we went looking. Hence, the following. And, the implications of all of this? Stay tuned. 

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A recent issue of The Economist had an OpEd on the origins of  "soc med" and provided some details about engineering and science, in a humanist sense, and the messes of the internet gone bad. We like The Economist and read, at least, their double issue that is published in late December of each year. But, we sample issues from time to time. 

Charles Horton Cooley was born in Michigan. His father, who was the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Michigan was born in New York. WikiTree did not show data past Charles' grandfather. However, records at FindAGrave (follow links for parents at each generation) suggest that Charles is a descendant of early New England pioneers. That is of interest to our research from the historical sense. Too, Charles was a sociologist. He coined "social media" in 1897. 

Reading further, Wikipedia has an article (that needs a little TLC) on the "Looking-glass self" of Charles which considers how the concept applies to social media (his neologism) especially of the type that we see now, over 150 years later of meddling with life by science, engineering, and technology. 

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Staying with the times, here is what Gemini (becoming a drag on Google - tsk, guys - I really liked Bard and its representation choices) says:

• Charles Horton Cooley is credited with the term "social media," which he coined over a century ago in 1897, even though the concept of social media as we know it today didn't exist at the time; this is significant because his work focused on how individuals perceive themselves based on how they believe others see them, which aligns with the idea of how people present themselves online through social platforms. 

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Now, we have been pursing the study of computing, since Kant, through mathematics, science and engineering without consideration of the "social/personal" sciences. Even though, we might add, that we see people as more complicated than anything that physics deals with in its fantasy (cosmology) or destructive modes (reductionist's grappling with wannabe particles and/or waves). 

About Kant? He was before the expansion of mathematics that happened in the 19th century. But, there was general increases in most areas of study during that time. We need know about that. Too, we are fortunate to have the American experience as a provider of threads for research. 

So, knowing things of his time (coincident with our Revolution), he stressed that we need to look at Reason as source of our abilities to know a priori and to cogitate from that in his analytic sense. All else is synthetic. Too, Kant was right on the target as he showed what modern theorem provers know: we cannot prove the existence nor the non-existence of God via logic (Kant's Prolegomena and Logic). It is a matter of choice. Right there? Free will. But, we will save this discussion for later. 

For now, please understand (Kant's emphasis) that the 400 years of the colonies that started the U.S. 250 years ago gave (give) adequate support for a new basis. Note, we are not using new science as did Wolfram. We just started to dig and can name four names of note in the American contributions: Count Rumford; Nathaniel Bowditch; Josiah Willard Gibbs; and James Bryant Conant. We could pick more (Peirce - father and son - Benjamin and C.S.), 

Notes: 

• 1. See Charles Horton Cooley. The Social Self -- 1. The Meaning of "I", Chapter 5 in  Human Nature and the Social Order (Revised Edition). New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, (1922): 168-210.
• On education, see our post on the Nobel influence. We will get more into that as the colonies (U.S.) took up education, in general, early on. There lots of things that were done in the U.S. of note beyond running after optimization which is freedom taken to an extreme and stupid as hell. 
• 2. John's education was classical in scope (four years of Latin, mathematics, and science - ages ago, in high school). As such, he strongly thinks that education ought to be Liberal Arts and Sciences (and engineering - get those ones involved in learning about the world before they screw it up, please). This cursory remark will be expanded over time as we deal with the 250th and the various 400ths before that. The American Dream is more "light on a hill" than ruling the world. 
• 3. Now, that the C-Suite is running after the illusion of GenAI wholehog, what can we do? Look at "humanist mathematics" for one thing. That is, we have to persevere in pursuit of truth across levels from atoms up to the ethereal. By doing so, we will get science and engineering back on track, as well, one might hope.  

Remarks: Modified: 02/18/2025

02/18/2025 --