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Bernadotte Perrin papers

 Collection
Call Number: MS 1018

Scope and Contents

Student notes on lectures in literature and the classics Perrin attended in Berlin (1876-1878), notes for lectures at Adelbert College and Yale University, corrected proofs for a volume of Plutarch's Lives, and miscellaneous personal papers, largely relating to Perrin's office as writer of the presentations for the honorary degrees at Yale University commencements (1902-1911). Included also is a small amount of correspondence about his publications and twenty-one volumes of diaries (1867-1920). Also present are photographs from Perrin's trip to Greece in 1890, a photograph of the 1869 membership of Yale senior society of Skull and Bones, and an undated Yale faculty group portrait. Collection contains personal diary transcripts and correspondence with his immediate family, especially between him and his first wife Luella Perrin, and son Lee James Perrin. Collection contains photocopied marriage certificates and newspaper articles, newspaper clippings, memorials for Bernadotte Perrin at the time of his death, and a bound volume of all his published articles.

Dates

  • 1867-1920

Creator

Conditions Governing Access

The collection is open for research.

Boxes 1-2 in Series Accession 2023-M-0002: In-process material pending conservation treatment. For further information, consult Public Services.

Conditions Governing Use

Unpublished materials authored or otherwise produced by the creator(s) of this collection are in the public domain. There are no restrictions on use. Copyright status for other collection materials is unknown. Transmission or reproduction of materials protected by U.S. Copyright Law (Title 17, U.S.C.) beyond that allowed by fair use requires the written permission of the copyright owners. Works not in the public domain cannot be commercially exploited without permission of the copyright owners. Responsibility for any use rests exclusively with the user.

Extent

3.5 Linear Feet (9 boxes)

Language of Materials

English

Catalog Record

A record for this collection is available in Orbis, the Yale University Library catalog

Persistent URL

https://hdl.handle.net/10079/fa/mssa.ms.1018

Abstract

Student notes on lectures in literature and the classics Perrin attended in Berlin (1876-1878), notes for lectures at Adelbert College and Yale University, corrected proofs for a volume of Plutarch's Lives, and miscellaneous personal papers, largely relating to Perrin's office as writer of the presentations for the honorary degrees at Yale University commencements (1902-1911). Included also is a small amount of correspondence about his publications and twenty-one volumes of diaries (1867-1920). Also present are photographs from Perrin's trip to Greece in 1890, a photograph of the 1869 membership of Yale senior society of Skull and Bones, and an undated Yale faculty group portrait. Collection contains personal diary transcripts and correspondence with his immediate family, especially between him and his first wife Luella Perrin, and son Lee James Perrin. Collection contains photocopied marriage certificates and newspaper articles, newspaper clippings, memorials for Bernadotte Perrin at the time of his death, and a bound volume of all his published articles.

Biographical / Historical

Bernadotte Perrin, B.A. 1869.

Born September 15, 1847, in Goshen, Conn.

Died August 31, 1920, at Saratoga Springs, N. Y.

Bernadotte Perrin was the son of Rev. Lavalette Perrin (B.A. 1840), a Congregational minister, and Ann Eliza (Comstock) Perrin, and was born in Goshen, Conn., September 15, 1847. His father was at one time associate editor of the Religious Herald of Hartford, and served from 1882 until his death in 1889 as a member of the Yale Corporation. He was the son of Aaron and Lois (Lee) Perrin, and the grandson of Thomas Perrin (or Pering), who came from England to Massachusetts in 1690, removed in 1709 to Lebanon, Conn., and later settled at Hebron, Conn. The family is of French-Huguenot descent, Bernadotte Perrin's given name being that of one of the marshals of Napoleon's army who was later King of Sweden. John Porter, who settled at Windsor, Conn., in 1639, was also an ancestor on the paternal side. Ann Eliza Comstock Perrin's parents were William and Ann (Keeler) Comstock. She traced her descent to William Comstock, who came from Culmstock, Devonshire, England, to Watertown, Mass., in 1635 or 1636, later settled at Wethersfield, Conn., and subsequently moved to New London.

In his Sophomore year at Yale he won two first prizes in English composition, receiving a second prize in the same subject in his Senior year. His appointments were a Latin oration in Junior year and a philosophical oration in Senior year. He was a member of Phi Beta Kappa.

He spent the first year after graduation teaching in the Hartford Public High School, where he had been prepared for college. He attended Yale Divinity School the following year, and was a graduate student in philology at Yale from 1871 to 1873, tutoring in Greek for one term. He was given the degree of Ph.D. in 1873. He was appointed tutor in Greek in September of that year, but left New Haven the next fall to become assistant principal of the high school in Hartford. He resigned this position in May, 1876, and went abroad for study, continuing his work in philology at Tübingen, Leipsic [sic], and Berlin until August 1878, when he again became a tutor at Yale. In 1879 he resumed his former position in Hartford, but resigned in 1881 to accept the professorship of Greek at Western Reserve College (now Adelbert College, Western Reserve University). He spent the summer of 1887 in study and travel abroad, and was in England and Greece from January to September, 1890, devoting part of this time to the study of Greek archaeology. In April, 1893, he was appointed professor of Greek at Yale, and served in that capacity until 1909, when he was made professor emeritus. He was named the first Lampson professor of the Greek language and literature in 1901, the title being changed in 1902 to Lampson professor of Greek literature and history. He served as public orator of the University from 1898 to 1908. Western Reserve University conferred the degree of LL.D. upon him in 1893. He was editor of Caesar's Civil War, school edition (1882); Homer's Odyssey, Books I-IV (with Professor T. D. Seymour; 1897); Twentieth Century Text Books, Classical Section (with John H. Wright of Harvard and Andrew F. West of Princeton; 1901-04); an English translation of six of Plutarch's Greek Lives (1901-1912); and a complete translation of Plutarch's Lives in eleven volumes for the Loeb Classical Library (1914-1920). He had frequently contributed articles on Greek and Roman history and literature to scientific journals. During 1904-05 he lectured at the American School in Athens, of which he was one of the managers. He was a member of Connecticut State Commission of Sculpture, and a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and served as president of the American Philological Association in 1897. He was a member of the Church of Christ in Yale College, and had held office as president of the Graduates Club of New Haven.

He died suddenly, of organic heart disease, August 31, 1920, at the home of his brother-in-law, General James W. Lester (B.A. Union 1881), at Saratoga Springs, N. Y. Interment was in Grove Street Cemetery, New Haven.

Professor Perrin was married August 17, 1881, in Lafayette, Ind., to his second cousin, Luella, daughter of James Joel Botts and Margaret Neil (Cason) Perrin, whose death occurred July 25, 1889. He was married a second time November 23, 1892, at Saratoga Springs, to Susan, daughter of Judge Charles Smith Lester, who received the honorary degree of M.A. from Yale in 1854, and Lucy Louisa (Cooke) Lester. She survives him with his two sons by his first marriage, Lee James, '06, and Lester William, '08. Among his Yale relatives were Samuel A. Galpin, '70, John O. Perrin, '79, William H. Perrin, ex-'79, James H. Perrin, '95, Henry L. Galpin, '02, Hervey B. Perrin, '07, John B. Perrin, '09, and Perrin C. Galpin, '10.

(Taken from Yale Obituary Record ).

Title
Guide to the Bernadotte Perrin Papers
Status
Under Revision
Author
compiled by Staff of Manuscripts and Archives, revised by Gladys Garcia (2023).
Date
February 1981
Description rules
Describing Archives: A Content Standard
Language of description note
Finding aid written in English.

Part of the Manuscripts and Archives Repository

Contact:
Yale University Library
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New Haven CT 06520-8240 US
(203) 432-1735
(203) 432-7441 (Fax)

Location

Sterling Memorial Library
Room 147
120 High Street
New Haven, CT 06511

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