September 29, 2011
The back corners of Burke Library hold a collection of historical documents, many of which are kept in the rare book room with controlled light and humidity. These documents weave the story of Samuel Kirkland’s life and the founding of Hamilton College.
In May of 1979, James T. Freeman completed his senior project, which included a collection of Samuel Kirkland’s notes and correspondences. His project brought to light a fact that many historians already know: these writings are scattered across the Northeast, from the Massachusetts Historical Society to Harvard.
In honor of Hamilton’s Bicentennial, some of these important writings are now in the library on loan from Dartmouth College. Among these is “A Plan of Education for the Indians,” which explains Kirkland’s intention to begin a school. As Maurice Isserman, Publius Virgilius Rogers Professor of American History and author of the book On the Hill: A Bicentennial History of Hamilton College, described it “sketches out the idea of what became Hamilton-Oneida Academy.” If this document is the origin of Hamilton College, it begs the question: Why are these documents at Dartmouth in the first place?
Samuel Kirkland, the founder of then Hamilton-Oneida College was born in Connecticut in 1741, and as an adult, his mentor was Eleazer Wheelock, his teacher and friend. Kirkland was a missionary to the Iroquois and represented their tribe during the Revolutionary War as he was one of the few missionaries who chose to live with the Indians and learn their language. He often struggled with funds and his correspondence with Wheelock at times became tense.
When Kirkland began his plans for a Hamilton-Oneida College, he intended it to be a school for the Oneidas. “All along [Kirkland] wanted that to be the purpose,” explained Katherine Collette, an archivist at Hamilton.
The few white boys were accepted for the sole purpose of further educating the Indians about the settlers’ culture in what Isserman described as “experimental interracial education.” Throughout this time, Kirkland discussed these plans with Wheelock, who founded Dartmouth College with the same intent to educate the Indians.
Dartmouth received many of its documents about Samuel Kirkland through the Massachusetts Historical Society. The Lothrop family, descendants of Kirkland, sold the documents to the society who in turn sold them to Dartmouth in 1999. Some of these writings, however, have been in their collection even further back in their history. According to Dartmouth’s Special Collections Librarian Jay Satterfield, Dartmouth’s “records concerning acquisitions” before the 1930’s are not complete and do not include Kirkland’s “A Plan of Education for the Indians,” although it is presumed that they have had it for awhile.
“There is a very strong chance that it was among the early College records left behind by Wheelock. So, we may have ‘acquired’ it when Kirkland gave it to Wheelock, and it has remained here as a part of the College Records,” said Satterfield.
Although Hamilton will keep this founding document for the rest of this bicentennial year, it will eventually be returned to Dartmouth College as agreed upon in the loan.