Two Treatises on Government (1728); the seventeenthcentury Dutch jurist and statesman Hugo Grotius' classic of international law De Jure Belli ac Pacis (1720); the Earl of Sheffield's Observations on the Commerce of the American States (6th edition, 1784); the Correspondence of Louis XVI (1803); and Thomas May's History of Parliament (1812) . Readers with a desire to study the classics of Philosophy could select the works of Leibnitz (1768) and Bacon (1819), while the interest in Biography might be stimulated by exploring Alexander Chalmers' massive General Biographical Dictionary in 32 volumes (18121817), a work still valuable for research. Some miscellaneous titles include a copy of the Stranger's Guide Through the University and City of Oxford (c. 1824), and the Royal Blue Book (1824), a guide to contemporary London society and its haunts . Both works were probably used by Wheaton during his stay in England. Rounding out the sampling of titles is John Johnson's Typographia (1824), a compendium of information on printing which incorporates a history of the dissemination of scholarship. Wheaton presumably hoped that the books he procured while on his travels abroad would be well utilized by the students and faculty of Washington College. An oblong journal containing circulation records for the period from 1827 to 1840 is preserved in the Trinity Archives. The records are arranged alphabetically by the name of the student or faculty member, and the books were signed out to them. The notation 'RT was usually entered next to a title upon its return. Unfortunately for us, but readily understandable, pages were torn out periodically as they became filled. The records from about 1833 to 1840 are generally intact, and leafing through them with an eye pealed for Wheaton Collection titles, we find unmistakable evidence that they did receive use in respectable numbers. Undoubtedly exceptional students and the faculty benefited most from the collection. This is borne out by the great number of entries for students who later became faculty and presidents of the college. These include John Williams (Class of 1835), Abner Jackson (Class of 1837) and Thomas Ruggles Pynchon (Class of 1841), all of whom read prodigiously, subsequently taught at the college and eventually became President. Also noteworthy are Eben Edwards Beardsley (Class of 1832), who was a tutor from 1833 to 1835, and Silas Totten, who joined the faculty in 1833 and was President from 1837 to 1848. Totten, Jackson and Pynchon served in the capacity of Librarian and were responsible for maintaining the circulation records. In general most students made modest use of the Library . The curriculum, in keeping with the tendency of the day, involved work from textbooks, and it is questionable how many students were motivated to do more than the minimum. Only those with a sound background in Latin and Greek, and perhaps some French, could thoroughly explore the breadth of the Wheaton Collection. A reasonable competence in Latin and Greek was required for admission to college, but French received little formal attention in this period. Despite the problem of language competence there was still much that could be readily used in the collection.
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Rules governing the Library housed in Seabury Hall did not promote intense use of the collection, but we must remember the relative scarcity then prevailing of what the modern student takes for granted. The Library was not available to the public and was open only a few hours during the week. The Librarian, usually appointed from among the faculty, 'prescribed' the order in which students might visit the Library, a privilege granted in return for one dollar per term of the general expenses fee . The number of books which might be signed out was in direct proportion to their physical size, by extension a measure of their relative value and a common arrangement of the period. A student could take out only one folio (generally a large, bulky book) which might be kept four weeks. One quarto (a book of average size today) might be borrowed for three weeks, and either one octavo or two duodecimos might be retained for two weeks . No reader other than a facurty member, whose limit was twelve, could borrow more than three books at a time. Fines were assessed for late returns and damages to books, and no person could "lend to another any book which he has received from the Library, under penalty of losing the privilege of borrowing for one year." Library Regulations conclude with mention of the time-honored annual housecleaning when the books and shelves would be "freed from dust." The library collections grew slowly but steadily during the first decade of the college's existence, and by 1832 numbered 1168 titles. This figure was small in comparison to the number of books in the personal library of Dr. Samuel Farmar Jarvis, a member of the faculty during the mid-1830's, and a noted scholar of linguistics and church history. His collection, valued for its strength in literature and history, contained well over 5000 volumes (an estimated 2000-2500 titles), and in size must be ranked among the larger private and institutional libraries then existing in the United States. Before departing for an extended sojourn in Europe in 1826, Jarvis deposited his library at the college. But this arrangement was temporary, and in 1837, having served but two years on the faculty, Jarvis left, taking his library with him. The students and faculty thus had to rely upon the college collection, estimated at no more than 1500 titles, and the student literary society libraries of modest size. For the balance of the century gradual growth characterized the pattern of library development. The significance of the Wheaton Collection onehundred fifty years after its formation lies less in the worth of its constituent titles , some of which are notable editions of important works, than in the sum of those titles - the collection viewed as a whole. Herein has survived a window into a world of intellect that has practically vanished. We have a unique opportunity to examine patterns of thought that dominated the seventeenth , eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries as evidenced in a small , cohesive library. Assembled for the students and faculty of a new institution of higher learning, the Wheaton Collection was the humble foundation of Trinity College's modern academic library.
Peter f. Knapp , Class of 1965, is senior reference librarian and College archivist .