Alfred P. Rockwell correspondence

The collection of Alfred P. Rockwell correspondence consists of letters written between 1868 and 1869 from Rockwell to his wife, Katharine Virginia Foote Rockwell, after he was offered a position at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The letters describe the physical and financial state of the Institute and the personality and educational philosophy of its first two presidents, William Barton Rogers and John Daniel Runkle. Letters from Rogers are also included in the collection.

FULL SC from R: The Alfred Perkins Rockwell correspondence consists of nineteen letters written between 1867 and 1876. These letters were purchased from Maurice Sagoff in September 1977. Mr. Sagoff acquired them from New Hampshire descendents of Rockwell. In 1983 Mr. Sagoff donated three letters from W. B. Rogers to the Archives.

The bulk of the letters were written by Rockwell to his wife, Katharine Virginia Foote Rockwell, between 1868 and 1869 when he left his wife at their home in New Haven, Connecticut, to visit Boston. In Boston, Rockwell met William Barton Rogers, founder and first president of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, who offered him a professorship in mining engineering. This appointment was confirmed by the Government of the Institute on December 7, 1868. Rockwell then searched in Boston for a suitable home and wrote his wife frequently to discuss living conditions in Boston and to describe his impressions of the Institute.

In his letters to his wife, Rockwell describes the physical and financial state of the Institute and the personality and educational philosophy of its first two presidents, William Barton Rogers and John Daniel Runkle. Runkle's election is closely described in letters dated September 30 and October 1, 1870, and in an undated letter headed Boston, Tuesday Eve.

Rockwell corresponded with William Barton Rogers and received four letters from him which are included in this collection. In his letters to Rockwell, Rogers describes the curriculum of the Department of Mining and Rockwell's appointment.

Rockwell received two letters from James Duncan Hague, professor of mining engineering at the Institute from 1865 to 1868. Rockwell also received a letter from William Edwin Hoyt, professor of civil engineering at the Institute from 1870 to 1877, and a letter from Samuel Kneeland, then Institute professor of biology and later secretary of the Institute.