Records of the President, John H. Washburn

University Archives and Special Collections
15 Lippitt Road
Kingston, RI 02881-2011
Tel: 401-874-4632

email: archives@etal.uri.edu

Published in 2007

Collection Overview

Title:	Records of the President, John H. Washburn
Date range:	1895-1932
Creator:	Washburn, John H.
Extent:	1 box(es) (.25 linear feet)
Abstract:	The Records of the President, John H. Washburn, consist of several biographies of Washburn, as well as a reprint of Acts of Congress relating to agricultural and mechanical education, and a letter to Washburn regarding the telephone system of Rhode Island State College.
Language of materials:	English
Repository:	University Archives and Special Collections
Collection number:	Rec. Gr. 1.1

Scope & content

The papers of John H. Washburn consists of two printed excerpts, one from Acts of Congress relating to the Land Grant Act of 1862 and a page from the Rhode Island State College publication, The Gleaner, with a biography of Washburn. In addition the collection contains one letter on the telephone system at the College.

Arrangement

The collection is arranged in one series as follows:

• 1. Subject File

Biographical or Historical Information

John Hosea Washburn was born in Bridgewater, Massachusetts, June 5, 1859. He entered the Massachusetts Agricultural College in 1874 and graduated after four years. He had taught for a year and a half in Massachusetts public school, when he became head of the Rhode Island Reform School in Providence. During that year he studied chemistry in the laboratories of Brown University.

In the fall of 1881, he returned to the Massachusetts Agricultural College for post graduate work. In 1893, Washburn was appointed Professor of Chemistry at the Connecticut Agricultural College in Storrs. He resigned in 1887 to study at the University in Gottingen from which institution he was awarded a Doctor of Philosophy in 1889.

He was appointed in May of the same year to be Principal of the Rhode Island Agricultural School. The land for a college had been appropriated for Rhode Island with the passage of the Morrill Act of 1862. Washburn's first order of business was to wrest the appropriation of land-grant status from Brown University. He successfully engaged in a conflict with Brown University to become the official land-grant institution in Rhode Island. By 1902, however, Washburn's self-opinionated and undiplomatic manner led to his being asked to resign in August of 1902 from the position of the president of the Rhode Island Agricultural and Mechanic Arts College.

After dismissal from the College, Washburn became Director of the National Farm School in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, from 1902-1917, until he retired. He died on August 3, 1932.

Access & Use

Access to the collection:	Any qualified person doing scholarly research is permitted to use material housed in the Distinctive Collections Unit.
Use of the materials:	Terms governing use and reproduction: Photocopying and scanning of materials is a fee based service available in the repository and is allowed at the discretion of the Archivist when in compliance to the Unit's policy on copyright and publication.
Preferred citation:	Records of the President, John Wasburn, Rec. Gr. 1.1, University of Rhode Island Archives, University Archives and Special Collection
Contact information:	University Archives and Special Collections 15 Lippitt Road Kingston, RI 02881-2011 Tel: 401-874-4632 email: archives@etal.uri.edu

Administrative Information

ABOUT THE COLLECTION
Acquisition:	The records were acquired by Special Collections prior to 1974.
ABOUT THE FINDING AID
Author:	Finding aid prepared by Leslie Tobias Olsen.
Encoding:	Finding aid encoded by Yuan Li on 2007 Oct 29, updated by Hailie D. Posey on 2009 Aug 12, updated by Mark Dionne on 2020 Apr 23.
Descriptive rules:	Finding aid based on Describing Archives: A Content Standard (DACS)

Additional Information

Inventory

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Inventory