Joseph E. Smith: correspondence, March 1854

Consists of fifty-one letters and three Bowdoin term bills, written by students Joseph, Samuel, and Henry Smith. Samuel, a Harvard student, sent thirty-one letters home beginning March 24, 1850 and ending June 16, 1854. His brother, Joseph, a Bowdoin student, sent twelve home, beginning April 16, 1850, and ending March 14, 1854. Henry (H.W.F.) Smith sent eight letters home, mostly as a youth working in Boston but later as a student in Yarmouth, Maine. His first letter is dated May 3, 1853 and his last, October 23, 1854. Most of these letters were written to their father, the Hon. Samuel E. Smith, Sr., of Wiscasset, Maine, although a few were written to their mother. The letters are affectionate, sanguine, and day-to-day, revealing a fine picture of ante-bellum college life. The first two Bowdoin term bills (for Joseph) are for the spring semester, 1853, and the last is for fall, 1853. Joseph's bills include specific charges such as tuition, board, repairs, and wood. Topics in Joseph's letters include Franklin Pierce and presidential politics (1852), smallpox in Brunswick (1851), the interior painting of the Bowdoin College Chapel, the teaching of mathematics, and College expenses.