Office of the President Records : Jonathan Dickinson to Harold W. Dodds Subgroup 1746-1999 (mostly 1830-1869)

• Series 7: Samuel Stanhope Smith Records

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Series 7: Samuel Stanhope Smith Records

10 folders

This collection is stored at Mudd Manuscript Library.

Requests will be delivered to Princeton University Archives, MUDD Reading Room .

Collection Creator: Princeton University. Office of the President..

Dates: 1804-1979.

Extent: 10 folders

Languages: English.

Access Restrictions

Materials generated by the office of the president are closed for 40 years from the date of their creation. Some records relating to personnel or students are closed for longer periods of time.

Description

Samuel Stanhope Smith, born in 1751 in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, was the first alumnus to become president of the College of New Jersey. His father, Robert Smith, taught him at the school he headed in Pequea, Pennsylvania until the age of sixteen, when Samuel entered the College of New Jersey as a junior. He graduated with honors in 1769 before returning to Pennsylvania to teach in his father's school. In 1771 he returned to Princeton to tutor and study theology under John Witherspoon. For health reasons, he left Princeton to work as a missionary in Virginia. In 1775 the seminary that later became Hampden-Sydney College was founded, and Smith became its president. Married to Ann Witherspoon, Witherspoon's daughter, Smith returned to Princeton in 1779 as a professor of moral philosophy, and his brother, John Blair Smith, replaced him as president of Hampden-Sydney College. On Witherspoon's death in 1794, Smith, who had become vice president in 1786, assumed the leadership of the College. After the Nassau Hall fire of 1802, he raised enough money not only to reconstruct the landmark but also to add two additional buildings. Unfortunately, a riot in 1807 led to the suspension of 125 students and a growing distrust on the part of trustees. Faculty resignations and a declining student body led to Smith's resignation in 1812.

This series is arranged topically and contains biographical and family information, details of Smith's Hampden-Sydney College and College of New Jersey years, and original correspondence. Material relating to Hampden-Sydney College includes a document describing the courses of study there and a pamphlet about the institution. The correspondence folder contains a short letter from Smith written in 1806 relating to a stock of books. There are also two letters to Smith: one relating to a shipment of books and one concerning administrative matters. Other correspondence dates from the twentieth century and pertains to gifts to and from Princeton University. A number of portraits of Smith can be found in this series.

Preferred Citation

Series 7: Samuel Stanhope Smith Records; 1804-1979; Office of the President Records : Jonathan Dickinson to Harold W. Dodds Subgroup, Princeton University Archives, Department of Rare Books and Special Collections, Princeton University Library.

Request Checked Items

	Title	Date	Container
	Biographical Information	1916-1974	Box 4, Folder 10
	Hampden-Sydney College and The College of New Jersey Years	1809-1976	Box 4, Folder 11
	Correspondence	1804-1807	Box 4, Folder 12
	Correspondence Referring to Gifts	1919-1965	Box 4, Folder 13
	Family Members	1934-1979	Box 4, Folder 14
	Post Mortem	1819	Box 4, Folder 15
	Proceedings of the Bible Society of Nassau Hall, at their Semi-Annual Meeting, August 27, 1814, with the President's Address	1814	Box 253
	A Discourse on the Nature, the Proper Subjects, and the Benefits of Baptism	1808	Box 253
	An Oration, Upon the Death of General George Washington	1800	Box 253
	A Discourse Delivered on the Twenty-Second of February, 1797, at the Funeral of the Reverend Gilbert Tennent Snowden	1797	Box 253
	A Discourse on the Nature and Reasonableness of Fasting	1795	Box 253
	A Discourse on the Guilt and Folly of Being Ashamed of Religion	1790	Box 253