College and Research Libraries


T h e First Book in the Library of 
T h e First State University 

BY LOUIS R. WILSON 

WH A T W A S T H E F I R S T B O O K acquired by the first state university library 
of America?1 What university library re-
ceived it? What were the circumstances 
under which it was acquired? Where is it 
today? T h e answers to these questions ap-
pear in the following pages. 

T h e first three questions can be an-
swered easily; the fourth calls for more 
extended consideration. 

T h e answer to the first question may 
have been known as long ago as March 
22, 1785. But if so, the information has 
not been generally available. Undoubt-
edly, Charles Thomson, the Secretary of 
the United States Congress at that time, 
knew which state university would prob-
ably receive the book, but the institution 
did not then actually exist except as it 
was provided for in a state constitution 
which had been adopted by a constitu-
tional convention on December 18, 1776. 

There was no uncertainty, however, 
about the first book that was to find its 
way into the library of the first state 
university to open its doors and send out 
into the life of the nation the first class of 
graduates. It was a copy of the second 
edition of The Works of the Right Rev-
erend Father in God Thomas Wilson, 
D.D. Fifty-eight Years Lord Bishop of 
Sodor and Man. With his Life Compiled 
from Authentic Papers by the Revd. C. 
Cruttwell. Published at Bath in 1782, it 

1 T h i s article is reprinted from The Library of the 
First State University: A Review of Its Past and a 
Look at Its Future, by Louis R . Wilson (Chapel H i l l : 
University of North Carolina, 1960). . T h e publication 
was issued on the occasion of the addition of the mil-
lionth volume to the North Carolina collections. 

Dr. Wilson is Dean Emeritus, Graduate 
Library School, University of Chicago, and 
former Librarian of the University of North 
Carolina. 

was printed by R. Cruttwell, and sold by 
C. Dilly, Poultry, London. Volume I con-
tained various papers by Bishop Wilson 
as well as his biography, while volume 
II contained his sermons. T h e two vol-
umes were bound as one in morocco, 
making a stout folio. 

The Works of Bishop Wilson appeared 
in several editions and extracts were 
widely circulated. Possibly the most ex-
tensively distributed edition was the third 
in eight octavo volumes, also printed at 
Bath in 1782-89. 

T h e library of the University of North 
Carolina was the fortunate institution to 
receive the book, even though in 1785 
the University's establishment by the 
General Assembly was four years in the 
future. 

T h e official record of the transactions 
relating to the acquisition of the first 
book consists of four parts: 

I. Article X L I of the Constitution of 
North Carolina adopted at Halifax, 
North Carolina, December 18, 1776, con-
stitutes the first part. It authorized the 
establishment of one or more universities 
thirteen years before the General Assem-
bly of 1789 passed the enabling act 
which brought the University into being. 

T h a t a school or schools be estab-

J A N U A R Y 1 9 6 1 35 



lished by the Legislature, for the 
convenient instruction of Youth, 
with such Salaries to the Masters, 
paid by the Public, as may enable 
them to instruct at low prices: and 
all useful learning shall be duly en-
couraged and promoted in one or 
more Universities. 

II. T h e second part is a copy of a 
resolution of the United States Congress 
passed on March 22nd, 1785, concerning 
the donation of copies of the Works of 
Bishop Wilson by his son, Dr. Thomas 
Wilson, to the Congress for distribution 
to the libraries of the college or universi-
ties of the respective states, the resolu-
tion being inscribed on the fly-leaf of the 
volume by the secretary. T h e informa-
tion concerning the resolution is taken 
from The Library of the University of 
North Carolina, by Fisk P. Brewer, pro-
fessor of Greek and librarian, 1860-70, 
and the resolution as it appears on the 
fly-leaf of the copy presented to Brown 
University. 

By 
T h e United States in Congress As-
sembled March 22, 1785. 
On motion of Mr. Howell seconded 
by Mr. King,— 

Resolved that the Delegates rep-
resenting each of the United States 
in Congress assembled be, and they 
are hereby authorized to receive 
from the Secretary of the Congress 
and to transmit to such College, 
University or public Seminary of 
learning in their states respectively 
as they may judge proper, to be de-
posited in the Library thereof, one 
of the Works of Thomas Wilson, 
D.D., and late Bishop of Sodor and 
Man, presented to Congress by his 
Son Doctor Wilson, Prebendary of 
Westminster.— 

C H A S . T H O M S O N , Secy. 

No mention is made of the specific in-
stitutions to which the gifts were sent in 
the Journal of the Continental Congress, 

1774-1789, volume X X V I I I , page 188, 
where the resolution is recorded. 

III. T h e third part is the statement of 
agreement made in 1785 by the delegates 
to the Congress from North Carolina who 
received the donation to transmit it to 
the University. T h e statement appeared 
on the fly-leaf following the resolution 
and is quoted by Brewer as follows: 

In pursuance of the above resolu-
tion the undersigned, delegates from 
the State of North Carolina, have 
agreed to transmit the works of Dr. 
Thomas Wilson to Newberne, to be 
deposited there in the Library, be-
longing to the public Academy, till 
the time arrives, which they hope is 
not far distant, when the wisdom of 
the Legislature, according to the 
express intention of the Constitu-
tion shall have caused a College or 
University to be erected in the State. 

H o . W I L L I A M S O N 

J N O . S I T G R E A V E S 

IV. T h e fourth part is from the 
Minutes of the Board of Trustees of the 
University acknowledging the receipt and 
acceptance of the gift at their meeting in 
Newbern December 5, 1792, almost a year 
before the cornerstone of the first build-
ing of the University was laid. 

A book entitled " T h e works of the 
right reverend Father in God 
Thomas Wilson D.D. Lord Bishop 
of Sodor and Man" was presented 
to the board by the Honle, John 
Sitgreaves Esqr agreeably to a reso-
lution of the Congress of the 
United States passed March 22nd. 
1785 which was accepted. 

Two other manuscript notes appear 
in the copies received by other colleges 
and universities. T h e copy at Brown Uni-
versity carries on the otherwise blank 
page before the flyleaf the notes: 

A Present of the Revd. Dr. Wil-

36 C O L L E G E A N D R E S E A R C H L I B R A R I E S 



son, Prebendary of Westminster 
and Son of the Author, Bishop of 
Man to Congress. 

T h e U. States in Congress assem-
bled to the College in Providence 
in the State of Rhode Island and 
Providence Plantation. 

T h e two notes are in different handwrit-
ings and neither is signed. T h e note con-
cerning the present by Dr. Wilson in the 
Dartmouth College copy is signed with 
initials which the reference librarian re-
ports could be SL or LL, in script of 18th 
or 19th century style. T h e initials are 
evidently those of Samuel Livermore who 
was a delegate from New Hampshire in 
1785. 

T h e bookplate in the copy at Harvard 
carries the inscription " T h e Gift of the 
Congress of the United States Recorded 
5 Sept. 1785," and information from 
several of the institutions is given con-
cerning the dates on which the copies 
were received. 

Up to this point, the record is clear 
and explicit. Librarian Brewer wrote 
about it in 1869-70; Dr. K. P. Battle, 
President of the University, 1876-91, and 
historian of the University, repeated the 
earlier statement of Brewer in Volume I 
of his History of the University of North 
Carolina, 1907, and R. D. W. Connor, 
Craige professor of history and jurispru-
dence, carried the story further in Vol-
ume I of his Documentary History of the 
University of North Carolina, 1953, cit-
ing the acknowledgement by the Board 
of Trustees at Newbern in December, 
1792, of the receipt and acceptance of 
the donation transmitted by Jno. 
Sitgreaves. 

T h e eventual fate of the "stout folio" 
can only be conjectured since no record 
of its actual presence in the library has 
appeared since 1869-70. In that respect, 
it shares the fate of the Sir Walter Ra-
leigh Colony of 1587 on Roanoke Island, 
North Carolina, which John White left 
behind in August of that year while he 

returned to England for supplies. On his 
return in 1590 he found no trace of it 
other than a few broken pieces of armor 
and the name C R O A T AN carved upon 
a tree. The whole colony, including Vir-
ginia Dare, the first child of English par-
ents to be born in "Virginia," had disap-
peared behind a veil of mystery. In 1937, 
Paul Green gave the legend permanent 
artistic form in a moving dramatic sym-
phony, The Lost Colony, performances 
of which have been attended annually in 
the seaside theatre at Fort Raleigh by 
thousands of delighted visitors. 

Speculation as to when and how this 
first book was lost, however, points to 
the period immediately after Librarian 
Brewer wrote about it in 1869-70. 

Although the University enrollment of 
461 in 1858 was exceeded only by that 
of Yale, and the University had re-
mained open during the Civil War, its 
president and faculty had been turned 
out by the Reconstruction government in 
June 1868 and replaced by a new Presi-
dent and hastily assembled faculty. A 
new governor and board of trustees 
were in command. This new Reconstruc-
tion faculty, placed in charge of the Uni-
versity in 1868-69, and characterized by 
Mrs. Cornelia Phillips Spencer as the 
"incomparable incapables," failed to in-
spire the confidence of North Carolina, 
few students appeared in 1868-69, and the 
commencement of 1869 was, to quote 
Mrs. Spencer again, "a grand fizzle." T h e 
"exercises" of the University were 
"largely suspended" and came to an end 
in 1869-70. T h e University was formally 
closed by the Trustees on February 1, 
1871, and remained closed until Septem-
ber 1875. During this period the prop-
erties of the University deteriorated 
badly. It appears all the more likely that 
the volume disappeared at this time 
when one reads testimony from two indi-
viduals writing at the time—David S. 
Patrick, professor of latin and bursar of 
the LTniversity; and Mrs. Spencer, the 
principal correspondent of the state press 

J A N U A R Y 1 9 6 1 37 



and commentator of the University dur-
ing the period 1865-80. 

T h e testimony of the Bursar is 
piquant and intriguing. In his report of 
November 12, 1869, he observed: " I have 
been informed that at the time of the 
suspension of exercises the opinion pre-
vailed in Chapel Hill, that the Univer-
sity property belonged to the people. It 
is not surprising, therefore, that some la-
boring under this pleasing impression 
should have been guilty of theft. Books 
were taken from the libraries and all 
working utensils used about the college 
campus were stolen. Some have returned 
property with the request that 'no ques-
tions should be asked,' while others re-
tained property under the impression 
that 'something may yet turn up.' " 

Mrs. Spencer, to whom much of the 
credit for the reopening of the Univer-
sity in 1875 is given, bitterly criticized 
the unpopular Reconstruction adminis-
tration in letters to friends and the state 
press for its neglect of the buildings and 
particularly for the despoliation of the 
libraries of the University and the Dia-
lectic and Philanthropic literary socie-
ties in which she had long been partic-
ularly interested. In a letter to former 
Governor W. A. Graham, she vividly de-
scribed the constant deterioration the 
buildings were undergoing. "These per-
sons now in charge have but one motive 
in action—their own interests and how 
to make the most of their position. T h e 
last detachment of Governor Holden's 
troops broke in the Philanthropic li-
brary, defaced and carried off . . . valu-
able books. . . . You have doubtless heard 
of one of Mr. Pool's students, kicking out 
the doors of the Dialectic and Philan-
thropic Archives rooms and scattering 
the papers. A few more years of negro 
and white soldiery, and carpetbag and 
scalawag faculty rule and the property 
will indeed be past all necessity for over-
sight." 

No mention was made of the volume 
when the three libraries of the societies 

and the University were merged in 1886 
to form the present university library, 
or in 1891 when the volumes in it and 
all other collections were counted and 
duplicates were listed and offered for 
sale, or in 1894-95 when a full-time li-
brarian was employed and began to 
maintain accession and other library rec-
ords and annual reports. And, from 1901 
to 1910 when all the collections were re-
classified and recatalogued, it was not in-
cluded in the record of volumes in the 
section of the library devoted to philos-
ophy and religion in which all books be-
ing reclassified were entered. 

Another possible explanation might be 
found in a letter written in 1936 by the 
faculty librarian under whose direction 
the libraries of the University and the 
literary societies were merged in 1886, 
four years before he became a member of 
the faculty of another university. Writ-
ing fifty years after the event, he recalled 
that when the libraries were merged 
some of the old, little used books of the 
university library were stored for lack 
of space on the top floor of New East. 
But when the archives of the Philan-
thropic Society were transferred from 
New East to the Carnegie library build-
ing after 1907 and when the building 
was completely renovated and rear-
ranged in the middle 1920's, the presence 
of these books was not recorded. 

In this respect, its fate was unlike that 
of the copies received by the libraries of 
Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Brown, Co-
lumbia, the University of Pennsylvania, 
and Dartmouth. These have been pre-
served in their rare book collections. T h e 
Rutgers copy has disappeared if it was 
ever received. 

T h e copy received by the College of 
William and Mary presents a problem 
which the librarian reports can be ex-
plained only by the fact that the College 
had been in communication with Bishop 
Wilson earlier than 1785. In July, 1744, 
President William Dawson of the Col-
lege acknowledged the receipt of Bishop 

38 C O L L E G E A N D R E S E A R C H L I B R A R I E S 



Wilson's "Essay," and letters to and from 
the Bishop are included in the Dawson 

^ papers in the Library of Congress. T h e 
College received a copy of his Works in 
1783, which it acknowledged on July 12, 
1783, "At a meeting of the President and 
Professors of the University." It was a 

A copy of the 1782 edition and was pre-
sented by the Bishop's son, but no refer-
ence could be made to the Congress since 

r this gift was made earlier than those of 
1785. Whatever the provenance of the 
gift was, the College no longer has the 
copy. It "did not survive the fire of Feb-
ruary, 1859, or the destruction of the Li-

L brary during the Peninsula Campaign." 
Although the University of Georgia 

was chartered on January 27, 1785, fifty-
four days before the resolution of the 
Congress was passed, that was probably 
too late for a copy to have been included 
in the gift for it. The information could 
hardly have been received in London be-
fore the books were dispatched to the 
Congress. At all events, its library has 
no record of ever having received a copy. 

T h e University of Vermont poses an 
i interesting question. It, like the Univer-
^ sity of North Carolina, was provided 

for in the Revolutionary Constitution 
i adopted in 1777. It was chartered in 

1791, and opened in 1800. But, unlike 
the University of North Carolina, it has 
no record of ever having received a copy 
of Bishop Wilson's Works. 

T h e University of Pennsylvania has al-
ways been a private, non-sectarian insti-
tution except from 1779 to 1789 when the 
Legislature, under the influence of the 
Revolution, took over its control. How-
ever, the trustees protested vigorously 
the violation of the original charter and 
the institution was returned to its former 
status. It has received public grants, but 
without the assumption of state control. 

Two other institutions than those 
named above were chartered before 
March 22nd, 1785. T h e College of 
Charleston was chartered March 19, 
1785, three days before the resolution 

was passed, but it has no record of hav-
ing received a copy. 

Washington College, of Chestertown, 
Maryland, was chartered in 1782. George 
Washington headed its list of endow-
ment contributors, served on its first 
board of vistors, and was awarded an 
honorary Doctor of Laws in 1789. How-
ever, the College suffered the loss by fire 
of its first library in 1827 and of its sec-
ond in 1917. Few early records of the in-
stitution remain. T h e minutes of the 
board of visitors do not go back of 1816 
and there are no early faculty records. 
Whether a copy was ever received conse-
quently is unknown. 

Brown University received its copy 
through the Rhode Island delegates to 
the Congress. It also acquired through 
gift a second copy and both copies are in-
cluded in a catalogue published in 1793. 
T h e second copy differs from the copies 
received through the Congress in that 
the two volumes are not bound in one. 
They are separately bound with the por-
trait of Bishop Wilson as the frontispiece 
of volume one. T h e binding is also dif-
ferent and unusual. T h e back strip is 
calf instead of morocco and the covers 
are overlaid with paper with a gilt bor-
der around the edge. This is fairly early 
for the use of paper in binding and is 
important historically. 

As a result of an inquiry sent to the 
institutions mentioned concerning the 
imprint and physical characteristics of 
the original gifts, the authorities of the 
John Hay Library and Brown University 
very generously offered to present the 
two volumes to the library if it would 
accept them to replace the missing book 
number one in the University of North 
Carolina's Library. This splendid gift has 
been warmly accepted by the library 
and the University, and this instance 
there is the profound hope that when the 
second millionth volume is acquired 
these two volumes will still be preserved 
among the library's most treasured pos-
sessions. 

J A N U A R Y 1 9 6 1 39