Archives Custodian Writes Histories of Early Alumni

The record of Harvard graduates in the early 18th century is the special province of Clarence K. Shipton '26, custodian of the University archives. For the past 20 years Shipton has been compiling the biographies of the alumni of that period.

Cotton Mather started the work of writing up the alumni back in 1678, beginning with the first class. The job was neglected after Mather's time until the 19th century when John L. Sibley, Class of 1825, published three volumes of biographies. Sibley left a bequest to the Massachusetts Historical Society for the continuation of the series.

Summoned from Brown

Shipton came to the University in 1929 at the urging of Samuel E. Morison '08, Trumbull Professor of American History. Shipton, until then a lecturer in history at Brown, has been working on the biographies ever since.

"Progress is slow, but steady," Shipton said in discussing his work. In 20 years he has added four volumes to the series, each 600 pages long. The last one covered the Class of 1726 through the Class of 1730. Only part of Shipton's work is done in his seventh floor Widener office.

He is used to poring over tattered 18th century newspapers to get information. Shipton has also searched for data in the cellars of town-halls and in court archives of old New England villages. Material for the biographies is also found abroad.

Information from England

Very often in the early 18th century, Shipton reports, Episcopalian alumni went to England for ordination. The details about their stays in England are found in the records of the Bishop of London.

Shipton disagrees strongly with common opinion that University graduates of that early era were mostly headed for the ministry. "Harvard was not a theological seminary in the 17th and 18th centures," he maintains. Based on his research, he asserts that graduates from the very beginning have gone into a great many different occupations and professions.

Special Projects

In addition to his regular work, Shiptoin has undertaken several special assignments. The late President Lowell expressed the opinion in the early '30's that more boys went to college during hard times because they had nothing else to do. Shipton looked into the subject, making a study of comparative college enrollments during normal times, booms, and depressions. His research disproved the theory that Lowell had suggested.

Although this is just one phase of the work being done to record fully the history of the University, it usually attracts quite a bit of attention every time a new volume in the series appears. Shipton has covered quite a few years in his books, but there are still many years of work to go before the biographies approach the modern period of the University.