Descriptive Summary

Title: Class of 1873 Boat Club Records and Rowing Scrapbooks, 1871-82.

Collection Number: 1000-10

Creator: Class of 1873 Boat Club and John E. Eustis '1874 .

Extent: 1 Hollinger box and 1 oversized file folder (0.3 cu. ft.).

Abstract: Scrapbook of one Wesleyan University rowing club and two general rowing scrapbooks.

Administrative Information

Preferred Citation: [Item], Class of 1873 Boat Club Records and Rowing Scrapbooks, Collection 1000-10, Special Collections & Archives, Olin Library, Wesleyan University, Middletown CT.

Publication Rights: All rights reside with the repository. For permission to reproduce or publish, please contact Special Collections & Archives.

Processed by: Jeffrey Makala, 2000.

Scope and Contents Note

This collection contains records of rowing/crew at Wesleyan University in the 1870s and 1880s. At the time, each class of students at Wesleyan organized its own rowing club. The class of 1873 Boat Club was organized on October 4, 1870, by 19 members of the class of 1873. It participated in the first Wesleyan regatta, which was held July 19, 1871, with the clubs of the classes of 1872, 1873, and 1874 competing.

Club records include its constitution and bylaws, minutes of early meetings, membership lists, and records of competitions. The newspaper clippings in this collection document Wesleyan-related rowing events as well as rowing competitions in the eastern United States and England. The two general rowing scrapbooks were collected by John E. Eustis '1874 in the years following his graduation from Wesleyan. Eustis was a captain of the 1874 club and, after leaving Wesleyan, became a captain and leader of New York's Atalanta Boat Club and a referee of collegiate regattas.

Also included in this collection are a hand-drawn map of the Saratoga Regatta course (1875), and programs of Wesleyan Regattas (1881-82).

Related Materials

The Wesleyan University Archives holdings include: three vertical subject file folders on rowing at Wesleyan including articles, clippings, and photographs; one trophy from the Springfield MA regatta (1872) won by the freshman crew team; Nicolson, Frank W., Athletics at Wesleyan, Middletown CT, Wesleyan Alumni Council, 1938, which includes a history, reminiscences, and list of rowing lettermen at Wesleyan.

Container List

Box	Folder
1	1	"Records / of / '73 Boat Club / Wesleyan University, / Middletown, / Conn.", ledger volume, 22 cm.
		Includes constitution and bylaws, membership lists, minutes (1871), record of competitions and results (1871), and clippings from CT, MA, and NY newspapers (1871- 74).
1	2	"Boating Notes / John E. Eustis"[class of 1874], scrapbook volume, 33.5 cm.
		Scrapbook containing newspaper clippings pasted atop an earlier, unrelated account book. The Account book is organized in calendar format with records of accounts due and outstanding bills of individuals. Includes newspaper clippings of regattas and rowing contests in the United States and England (1874-77) and programs to Wesleyan's Fall Regatta (October 29, 1881) and Spring Regatta (May 20, 1882).
1	3-4	Untitled, incomplete scrapbook, 33.5 cm.
		Consists of loose newspaper clippings of rowing events (1874-76) and blank ledger book, lacking approximately half its pages (2 folders).

Oversized Materials

1 folder, containing:

"The Great College Regatta at Springfield, Mass., July 17th [1873]," foldout mounted engraving from Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper, August 2, 1873 (64 x 34 cm).

"Map of a Part of Saratoga Lake with Rowing Course for College Regatta," hand-drawn, hand-colored map, 1875 (37x 50 cm).

"Eighth Regatta of the Harlem Regatta Association, Held on the Hudson River, New York City, Friday, June 9th, 1882," broadside (26x 33cm).