Permanent URL: http://arks.princeton.edu/ark:/88435/7h149p85q
Cliosophic Society Records, 1789-1941: Finding Aid
AC016
Princeton University Shield
65 Olden Street
Princeton, New Jersey 08540 USA
Phone: 609-258-6345
Fax: 609-258-3385
mudd@princeton.edu
http://www.princeton.edu/~mudd
Published in 1997
©2006 Princeton University Library
Summary Information
- Creator:
- Cliosophic Society (Princeton University).
- Title and dates:
- Cliosophic Society Records, 1789-1941
- Abstract:
- The Cliosophic Society (1770-1941) was a political, literary, and debating society on the Princeton campus that played an important role in the development of the college and also the intellectual and social development of generations of Princeton students.
- Size:
- 51.4 linear feet (89 total containers: 49 boxes, 38 volumes, 2 oversize folders)
- Call number:
- AC016
- Location:
- Princeton University Library. Department of Rare Books and Special
Collections.
Seeley G. Mudd Manuscript Library.
Princeton University Archives.
Princeton, New Jersey 08540 USA - Language(s) of material:
- English.
- Storage note:
- This collection is stored onsite at the Mudd Manuscript Library.
History of the Cliosophic Society
The Cliosophic Society was the oldest college literary and debating society in the world until its merger with the second oldest, the American Whig Society, in 1941. It served as a focus for students and alumni at Princeton for almost 200 years, and served as a training ground for many statesmen and orators while they were in college.
The Cliosophic Society traces its roots to a small organization of students known as the Well-Meaning Society founded at the College of New Jersey in 1765 by William Paterson, signer of the Declaration of Independence, Oliver Ellsworth, later Senator from Connecticut, Luther Martin, delegate to the Constitutional Convention, Tapping Reeve, founder of the first law school in the United States, and Robert Ogden. The purpose of this society was to collect “the first young men in point of character and scholarship as its members”. However, in 1768 or 1769 the competition with the Plain-Dealing Club, the antecedent of Clio's sister society the American Whig Society, had reached such a fevered pitch that the faculty was obliged to close both organizations. However, the society was reorganized on June 8, 1770, and took the name the Cliosophic Society at that time.
While the Cliosophic Society invoked Clio, the muse of history as its patroness, it was not named after her as some people believe. Rather, it took its name from a speech given by William Paterson delivered at his graduation in 1763 entitled “A Cliosophic Oration”. He appears to have created this word himself, meaning “in praise of wisdom” from the Greek words kleio, I praise, and sophos, wisdom.
Whig and Clio quickly came to dominate student life on the campus, the first example of this being the Paper War of 1771, during which the entire student body assembled on a daily basis in order to hear the latest attacks that the literary societies had prepared against each other. The activities of the Society were extensively curtailed during the Revolutionary War, while Nassau Hall was occupied by British and American forces. The society renewed its activities on July 4, 1781 and continued to grow stronger.
In 1802 Nassau Hall burned down, destroying all of Clio's records except for one book of minutes. In addition, the fire forced the society to meet in several different locations during the next few years, settling in 1805 in the building which is now known as Stanhope Hall. The society met in a room on the top floor of that building until 1838, when it moved to a new wood frame building on Cannon Green called Clio Hall. The members used this building until it was demolished to make way for a larger marble building which they occupied in 1892.
Clio's relations with Whig consumed a great deal of its time during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Most of these relations revolved around a series of treaties which the Halls repeatedly drew up, broke, and reaffirmed as if nothing had happened. They signed the first of these treaties in 1799, establishing the groundwork of their relationship for the next hundred and thirty years. This treaty provided that a person could belong only to one of the societies, not to both, and that neither society could induct a freshman until after he had been on campus a specified period of time. One result of the intense rivalry between the societies and their attempts to outdo each other was that in 1820 Clio decided to make itself older than Whig (which had been officially founded in 1769) henceforth acknowledging 1765 as the date of its founding.
One of the promises members had to make when they were initiated was not to reveal the secrets of the Hall to any non-member, especially a Whig. These included the names of the offices and officers of the Society and the traditions which they maintained, such as referring to each other as Brother and taking fictional names. They took names of all sorts sometimes drawing upon the classical tradition (Aeneas, Odysseus) or a more modern American tradition (Old Knickerbocker, Natty Bumpo), while others seem to have chosen their names so that they would be easy to remember (A,X,Z). Members used these fictional names for all of their dealings within the Society, and the records reflect this, referring to members by fictional name and real name [e.g., Toledo (Bro. Jones)], until this tradition was abandoned in 1862.
The main officers of the Society were the President, who ran the meetings, the Clerk, who handled all the administrative affairs including keeping minutes and handling correspondence, and the Treasurer, who kept the books and handled the Society's financial affairs. Other offices included the Librarian who was responsible for maintaining the Society's library and ascertaining what books and periodicals the members wanted, and the Historian, who prepared a report for the Annual meeting of the Alumni at commencement detailing the Hall's activities during the preceding year. Also, the Court of Appeals was added during the last quarter of the nineteenth century, in order to deal with discipline and attendance problems within the Society.
The Society reached its high point of influence over life in the College during the 1870s and 1880s. During the 1890s, a slow decline in the importance of the Society began and became much more pronounced after 1900. This was mirrored by a parallel decline in the American Whig Society. Whig and Clio declined for many reasons, but the most important of these were probably the rise of other extracurricular activities at Princeton, especially the eating clubs and athletics, the growth of Princeton from a small liberal arts college to a major university, and the development of high-speed transportation, specifically railroads, which gave Princetonians a new easy access to New York and Philadelphia that they had never had before. Princeton was no longer isolated in the New Jersey countryside.
In 1914 Whig and Clio finally decided to eliminate the ban of secrecy that they had maintained for so long, in the hopes that by increasing communication between the Halls they would be able to bolster each other and stop the decline that both Halls were in. However, their efforts failed, and in 1928, under pressure from the University and also the financial strain of each society trying to maintain its own building, Whig and Clio merged. They carried on their activities together in Whig Hall, while Clio Hall was rented to the University, generating revenue for the societies. While Whig and Clio started acting as one society in 1928, carrying on almost all of their activities together on the undergraduate level, they each maintained their own trustees and officers and continued to issue separate diplomas for several years. The merger became official in 1941, when the trustees of both societies agreed to form the American Whig-Cliosophic Society.
Description
Consists of records of the Cliosophic Society (1770-1941). The material documents the growth and development of the second-oldest literary and debating society in the United States, from its inception in 1770, through its rivalry with the other campus literary organization, the Whig Society, to its final merger with Whig in 1941. Included in the records are minutes, treasurer’s bills, committee documents, attendance rolls, membership lists, constitutions and by-laws, and publications.
Arrangement
The Records of the Cliosophic Society are divided into thirteen series, primarily by the officer or committee who generated the documents. They are:
- Series 1: Clerk's Documents, 1792-1940
- Subseries 1A: Final Minutes, 1792-1940
- Subseries 1B: Rough Minutes, 1819-1910
- Subseries 1C: Correspondence, 1824-1927
- Subseries 1D: Other Materials, 1849-1902
- Series 2: Treasurer's Documents, 1810-1931
- Subseries 2A: Treasurer's Accounts, 1810-1814, 1858-1931
- Subseries 2B: Treasurer's Books, 1857-1908
- Subseries 2C: Miscellaneous Records, 1894-1908
- Subseries 2D: Fine Books and Fine Lists, 1838-1880
- Subseries 2E: Orders to Treasurer, 1846-1848
- Subseries 2F: Receipt Books, 1845-1879
- Series 3: Librarian's Documents, 1858-1893
- Series 4: Court of Appeals Documents, 1877-1913
- Subseries 4A: Attendance Rolls, 1888
- Subseries 4B: Excuse Books, 1899-1913
- Subseries 4C: Record of Debates and Original Speeches, 1884-1905
- Subseries 4D: Record Book, 1877-1890
- Series 5: Historian's Documents, 1823-circa 1915
- Series 6: Clio Hall Committee Documents, 1889-1896
- Series 7: Trustees' Documents, 1929-1933
- Series 8: Short-Lived Committees, 1894-1907
- Series 9: Miscellaneous Documents, 1822-1939
- Series 10: General Documents, circa 1808-circa 1930
- Subseries 10A: Membership Lists, Membership Registers, Class Lists, and Class Registers, circa 1808-circa 1930
- Subseries 10B: Constitutions and By-laws, 1809-1938
- Subseries 10C: Record Book, 1819-1843
- Series 11: Joint Documents with Whig, circa 1805-1921
- Subseries 11A: Treaties, circa 1805-1915
- Subseries 11B: Joint Committee Reports, 1827-1921
- Subseries 11C: Addresses to the Societies, 1829-1881
- Subseries 11D: Freshmen Recruiting Information, 1890-1917
- Series 12: Publications, 1837-1923
- Subseries 12A: Membership catalogues, 1837-1914
- Subseries 12B: Library Catalogues, circa 1853-1882
- Subseries 12C: Single Publications, 1865-1927
- Series 13: Diplomas, 1789-1906
- Series 14: Oversize Materials, Joint Documents with Whig
Access and Use
Access
Collection is open for research use.
Restrictions on Use and Copyright Information
Single photocopies may be made for research purposes. Permission to publish material from the collection must be requested from the University Archivist. Copyright is held by the Trustees of Princeton University.
Acquisition and Appraisal
Provenance and Acquisition
The contents of the records were acquired in 1941 in an agreement between Princeton University and the Board of Trustees of the American Whig-Cliosophic Society. An attempt was made at organizing the records in 1975, but this report lacked certain archival necessities for organization.
Appraisal
In the process of organizing the Clio records, several items were purposefully discarded. These included the attendance rolls, which were extremely repetitive, bulky, and uninformative. In addition, several checkbooks were discarded since the transactions were recorded in the treasurer's records. Also, several debate itineraries were discarded, while one was kept as a sample, since the information was recorded in the minutes.
Related Materials
Related Archival Material
Related Princeton University Library manuscript collections most prominently include the Records of the American Whig Society and the Records of the American Whig-Cliosophic Society.
Processing and Other Information
Processing Information
This collection was processed by Douglas Ray in 1992. Finding aid written by Douglas Ray in 1992.
Descriptive Rules Used
Finding aid content adheres to that prescribed by Describing Archives: A Content Standard.
Encoding
Machine-readable finding aid encoded in EAD 2002 by Techbooks and Cristela García-Spitz on October 20, 2006.
Finding aid written in English.
Preferred Citation
Identification of specific item; Date (if known); Cliosophic Society Records, Box and Folder Number; University Archives, Department of Rare Books and Special Collections, Princeton University Library.
Subject Headings
These materials have been indexed in the Princeton University Library online catalog using the following terms. Those seeking related materials should search under these terms.
- Cliosophic Society (Princeton University)
- Princeton University -- Societies, etc.
- Princeton University -- Students -- Societies and clubs.
- College students -- New Jersey -- Princeton -- Political activity.
- College students -- New Jersey -- Princeton -- Societies and clubs.
- Debates and debating -- New Jersey -- Princeton -- Societies, etc.
- Archives.
- Records.
Browse other finding aids related to the following terms:
Contents List
Series 1: Clerk's Documents, (1792-1940)
Series Arrangement
Arranged according to subseries.
Subseries 1A: Final Minutes, (1792-1940)
Subseries Description
This subseries consists of volumes detailing the activities of the society throughout its history. The final minutes were copied from the rough minutes and present a formal account of the proceedings of each meeting including the topics which were debated and any motions which were passed. The clerk changed several times a year during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, and at the end of his term each clerk recorded the names of each undergraduate member of the society and the officers elected for the next term, as well as the amount of money in the treasury. Also, from circa 1840 to circa 1870 each clerk began his term with a title page stating his name and fictional name. Some clerks drew artwork on their title pages. Until 1862 each member is referred to both by his last name and by a fictional name which members were required to assume upon entering the society. The minutes also contain transcriptions of the letters from men who accepted honorary membership in the society, along with their signatures, which were cut out of the letters and pasted into the final minutes. The minutes from the twentieth century are much less detailed, reflecting a decline in the activities of the society.
Subseries Arrangement
Arranged chronologically.
Final Minutes, 1792-1801
Box 1 Final Minutes, 1802-1811
Box 2 Final Minutes, 1811-1821
Box 3 Final Minutes, 1821-1832
Box 4 Final Minutes, 1832-1840
Box 5 Final Minutes, 1840-1846
Box 6 Final Minutes, 1846-1856
Box 7 Final Minutes, 1856-1862
Box 8 Final Minutes, 1862-1867
Box 9 Final Minutes, 1867-1873
Box 10 Final Minutes, 1873-1879
Box 11 Final Minutes, 1879-1885
Box 12 Final Minutes, 1885-1891
Box 13 Final Minutes, 1891-1897
Box 14 Final Minutes, 1897-1903
Box 15 Final Minutes, 1903-1912
Box 16 Final Minutes, 1912-1920
Box 17 Final Minutes, 1920-1926
Box 18 Final Minutes, 1927 Apr 4-1928 Mar 29
Box 19, Folder 1 Final Minutes, 1928 Mar 29-1928 May 23
Box 19, Folder 2 Final Minutes, 1929 May 15-1940 Jun 8
Box 19, Folder 3 Subseries 1B: Rough Minutes, (1819-1910)
Subseries Description
These are the minutes as they were first written, presumably while the meeting was still going on. They are less organized than the final minutes and are not as complete, but they were retained in the collection because they provide a more complete picture of some of the meetings, since they contain details that were expunged from the final minutes. For instance, in many cases they contain motions which were proposed but were defeated and consequently not included in the final minutes. The rough minutes also have the actual letters from men who accepted honorary membership pasted into them, except for the signatures, which were cut out of the letters and pasted into the final minutes. The book in box 39, folder 1, in Series II: Treasurer's Documents, contains rough minutes in the back, but was kept separate from the rest of the documents in this series because it is primarily a treasurer's document.
Subseries Arrangement
Arranged chronologically.
Rough Minutes, 1910-1920
Box 18 Rough Minutes, 1819-1821
Box 19, Folder 4 Rough Minutes, 1827-1829
Box 19, Folder 5 Rough Minutes, 1829-1832
Box 19, Folder 6 Rough Minutes, 1832-1836
Box 20, Folder 1 Rough Minutes, 1837-1840
Box 20, Folder 2 Rough Minutes, 1841-1843
Box 20, Folder 3 Rough Minutes, 1846-1850
Box 20, Folder 4 Rough Minutes, 1850-1853
Box 21, Folder 1 Rough Minutes, 1853-1857
Box 21, Folder 2 Rough Minutes, 1857-1860
Box 22, Folder 1 Rough Minutes, 1860-1863
Box 22, Folder 2 Rough Minutes, 1863
Box 23, Folder 1 Rough Minutes, 1863-1867
Box 23, Folder 2 Rough Minutes, 1865-1866
Box 23, Folder 3 Rough Minutes, 1867-1871
Box 24, Folder 1 Rough Minutes, 1869-1872
Box 24, Folder 2 Rough Minutes, 1871-1873
Box 25, Folder 1 Rough Minutes, 1872
Box 25, Folder 2 Rough Minutes, 1872-1873, 1876
Box 26, Folder 1 Rough Minutes, 1873-1874
Box 26, Folder 2 Rough Minutes, 1873-1875
Box 26, Folder 3 Rough Minutes, 1875-1878
Box 27, Folder 1 Rough Minutes, 1878-1880
Box 27, Folder 2 Rough Minutes, 1880-1882
Box 28, Folder 1 Rough Minutes, 1886-1888
Box 28, Folder 2 Rough Minutes, 1888-1890
Box 29 Rough Minutes, 1891-1894
Box 30 Rough Minutes, 1894-1899
Box 31 Rough Minutes, 1900-1910
Box 32 Subseries 1C: Correspondence, (1824-1927)
Subseries Description
This subseries contains the letters which were sent to the society. However, letters from honorary members have been left in the minutes where the clerk placed them, and letters to and from committees within the society such as the Clio Hall committee and the Debating committee are in the series which contain the other documents produced by those committees.
Subseries Arrangement
Arranged chronologically.
Correspondence, 1824
Box 33, Folder 1 Correspondence, 1844-1849
Box 33, Folder 2-7 Correspondence, 1853
Box 33, Folder 8 Correspondence, 1855
Box 33, Folder 9 Correspondence, 1865
Box 33, Folder 10 Correspondence, 1875
Box 33, Folder 11 Correspondence, 1889
Box 33, Folder 12 Correspondence, 1900-1901
Box 33, Folder 13 Correspondence, 1904 Jan-1904 Jun
Box 33, Folder 14-15 Correspondence, 1910-1917
Box 33, Folder 16-19 Correspondence, 1920-1927
Box 33, Folder 20-21 Correspondence, undated
Box 33, Folder 22 Subseries 1D: Other Materials, (1849-1902)
Subseries Description
These other documents produced by the clerk include several types of lists of members who performed certain Hall activities. Among these materials are the Appointments by Clerk, which is written in a kind of shorthand. One example of this is the notation “Dodd 1.24.D. 2.21.S.” which means “Brother Dodd participated in a debate on January twenty-fourth and delivered a speech on February twenty-first”. This subseries also contains a Proposition Book, in which, until 1862, members had to write any motions they wanted to propose before they could introduce them on the floor.
Subseries Arrangement
Arranged alphabetically by type of material.
Appointments by Clerk, 1867-1868
Box 34, Folder 1 Appointments by Clerk, 1868
Box 34, Folder 2 Diplomas Awarded, 1853-1870
Box 34, Folder 3 Obituary Notices, 1854-1869
Box 34, Folder 4 Original Speeches, 1849-1850
Box 34, Folder 5 Original Speeches, 1853-1865
Box 34, Folder 6 Original Speeches, 1875-1901
Box 35, Folder 1 Proposition Book, 1857-1858
Box 35, Folder 2 Record of Debates, 1896-1902
Box 35, Folder 3 Series 2: Treasurer's Documents, (1810-1931)
Series Arrangement
Arranged by subseries.
Subseries 2A: Treasurer's Accounts, 1810-1814, 1858-1931
Subseries Description
Treasurer's Accounts (1810-1814, 1858-1931) - general balance sheets for the assets, income and expenditures of the society.
Treasurer's Account, 1810-1814
Box 36, Folder 1 Treasurer's Account, 1858-1871
Box 36, Folder 2 Treasurer's Account, 1871
Box 36, Folder 3 Treasurer's Account, 1871-1876
Box 36, Folder 4 Treasurer's Account, 1876-1883
Box 36, Folder 5 Treasurer's Account, 1883-1884
Box 36, Folder 6 Treasurer's Account, 1883-1894
Box 37, Folder 1 Treasurer's Account, 1894-1911
Box 37, Folder 2 Treasurer's Account, 1911-1918
Box 37, Folder 3 Treasurer's Account, 1919-1920
Box 37, Folder 4 Treasurer's Account, 1922-1931
Box 37, Folder 5 Subseries 2B: Treasurer's Books, (1857-1908)
Subseries Description
These are individual accounts showing money paid by and paid to each member of the society. These frequently overlap in starting and ending dates because the treasurers usually tried to keep the entire account for each person in one book, so that seniors and juniors might be at the end of an old book, while a new book had to be started for the freshmen and sophomores.
Subseries Arrangement
Arranged chronologically.
Treasurer's Book, 1857-1869
Box 38, Folder 1 Treasurer's Book, 1866-1875
Box 38, Folder 2 Treasurer's Book, 1875-1876
Box 39, Folder 1 Rough Minutes, 1882-1886
Box 39, Folder 1 Treasurer's Book, 1880-1881
Box 39, Folder 2 Treasurer's Book, 1880-1881
Box 39, Folder 3 Treasurer's Book, 1881-1882
Box 39, Folder 4 Treasurer's Book, 1878-1879
Box 40 Treasurer's Book, 1882-1887
Box 41, Folder 1 Treasurer's Book, 1887-1888
Box 41, Folder 2 Treasurer's Book, 1885-1889
Box 41, Folder 3 Treasurer's Book, 1888-1889
Box 41, Folder 4 Treasurer's Book, 1889-1890
Box 42, Folder 1 Treasurer's Book, 1890-1891
Box 42, Folder 2 Treasurer's Book, 1892
Box 42, Folder 3 Treasurer's Book, 1893-1895
Box 43, Folder 1 Treasurer's Book, 1895-1902
Box 43, Folder 2 Treasurer's Book, 1897-1899
Box 43, Folder 3 Treasurer's Book, 1899-1908
Box 44 Treasurer's Book, 1905-1909
Box 45, Folder 1 Subseries 2C: Miscellaneous Records, 1894-1908
Subseries Description
Miscellaneous Records (1894-1908) - This subseries contains several different types of financial records, including the salaries paid to the officers of the society, the pool fund, and the library fund.
Miscellaneous Records, 1894-1908
Box 45, Folder 2 Subseries 2D: Fine Books and Fine Lists, (1838-1880)
Subseries Description
These are lists of the fines incurred by each member of the society. The Fine Lists are free sheets of paper, while the Fine Books are bound volumes.
Subseries Arrangement
Arranged chronologically.
Fine Book, 1860-1862
Box 46 Fine Book, 1863-1865
Box 47 Fine Book, 1865-1869
Box 48 Fine Book, 1873-1875
Box 49 Fine Book, 1875-1876
Box 50 Fine List, 1838
Box 51, Folder 1 Fine List, 1849
Box 51, Folder 2 Fine Book, 1872-1873
Box 51, Folder 3 Fine Book, 1876-1878
Box 51, Folder 4 Fine Book, 1878-1880
Box 51, Folder 5 Subseries 2E: Orders to Treasurer, 1846-1848
Subseries Description
A record of the bills which the President of the Society ordered the treasurer to pay.
Orders to Treasurer, 1846-1848
Box 52, Folder 1 Subseries 2F: Receipt Books, 1845-1879
Subseries Description
The receipts for cash transactions of the society were pasted into these books. They were retained in the collection because they provide the only financial information in regard to the Society for certain periods, particularly the 1840s and early 1850s. In addition, since many of the receipts are from the newspapers which the society ordered, they provide some idea of what the members were reading.
Subseries Arrangement
Arranged chronologically.
Receipt Book, 1845-1847
Box 52, Folder 2 Receipt Book, 1852-1855
Box 52, Folder 3 Receipt Book, 1853-1863
Box 52, Folder 4 Receipt Book, 1870-1879
Box 52, Folder 5 Receipt Book, 1873-1879
Box 53 Series 3: Librarian's Documents, (1858-1893)
Series Description
This series contains the records produced by the undergraduate librarian of the society. During much of the nineteenth century the libraries of Whig and Clio were larger and more accessible to students than that of the College. The documents in the series include the financial and administrative records of the librarian, who was responsible for assessing the needs and desires of the members and determining what books and periodicals to order. The society periodically published a list of the holdings of the library, and these can be found in series XI - Publications. In addition, some of the financial records of the library during the periods 1894-1896 and 1900-1902 can be found in series II - Treasurer's Documents, in the subseries Miscellaneous Documents.
Series Arrangement
Arranged alphabetically by type of material.
Librarian's Account, 1878-1881
Box 54, Folder 1 Librarian's Book, 1872-1876
Box 54, Folder 2 Books Purchased, 1881-1882
Box 54, Folder 3 Books Purchased, 1881
Box 54, Folder 4 Library Directory, undated
Box 54, Folder 5 Library Directory, circa 1860
Box 55, Folder 1 Periodical Book, 1858-1868
Box 55, Folder 2 Periodical Book, 1873-1878
Box 55, Folder 3 Librarian's Report, 1881-1895
Box 55, Folder 4 Transfer of Clio Library to University, 1899
Box 55, Folder 5 Series 4: Court of Appeals Documents, (1877-1913)
Series Description
Series 4: Court of Appeals Documents (1877-1913) - arranged according to subseries. The court of appeals was a committee established by Clio in the last quarter of the nineteenth century and active until the early part of the twentieth century. It was responsible for maintaining order and dealing with discipline problems within the society, such as infractions of the rules of procedure, and in particular, dealing with absences. The subseries are:
Subseries 4A: Attendance Rolls, 1888
Subseries Description
Attendance Rolls (1888) - The society printed up lists of its members which were used by the officers of the court of appeals to record who was present and who was not at each meeting. Since these were highly repetitive and not very informative, most of the rolls were removed from the collection and only one was retained as an example.
Attendance Rolls, 1888
Box 56, Folder 1 Subseries 4B: Excuse Books, 1899-1913
Subseries Description
This subseries contains the books in which a member was required to write the reason that he would be absent from a meeting and a request that he be excused. The court would then read the requests and mark each of them Ap. (Appear) or Ex. (Excused).
Subseries Arrangement
arranged chronologically.
Excuse Book, 1899 Oct-1899 Nov
Box 56, Folder 2 Excuse Book, 1899 May-1900 Mar
Box 56, Folder 3 Excuse Book, 1899 Nov-1900 Feb
Box 56, Folder 4 Excuse Book, 1900 Mar-1900 Oct
Box 56, Folder 5 Excuse Book, 1900 Oct-1901 May
Box 56, Folder 6 Excuse Book, 1901 Feb-1901 May
Box 56, Folder 7 Excuse Book, 1901 Jun-1901 Dec
Box 56, Folder 8 Excuse Book, 1901 Dec-1902 Feb
Box 57, Folder 1 Excuse Book, 1902 Feb-1902 Apr
Box 57, Folder 2 Excuse Book, 1902 May-1902 Oct
Box 57, Folder 3 Excuse Book, 1902 Nov-1903 Jan
Box 57, Folder 4 Excuse Book, 1912 Nov-1913 May
Box 57, Folder 5 Subseries 4C: Record of Debates and Original Speeches, 1884-1905
Subseries Description
These are the same types of materials which the clerk kept earlier in the nineteenth century: lists of those who delivered speeches and participated in debates.
Subseries Arrangement
Arranged chronologically.
Record of Debates, 1884-1889
Box 57, Folder 6 Record of Debates, 1890-1891
Box 58, Folder 1 Record of Debates, 1893-1895
Box 58, Folder 2 Record of Debates, 1896-1902
Box 58, Folder 3 Record of Debates, 1898-1901
Box 58, Folder 4 Record of Debates, 1898-1905
Box 58, Folder 5 Record of Debates, 1901-1902
Box 58, Folder 6 Original Speeches, 1901-1902
Box 58, Folder 7 Subseries 4D: Record Book, 1877-1890
Subseries Description
This book contains the minutes of the court, which consist primarily of the decisions of the cases which came before it.
Record Book, 1877-1890
Box 59 Series 5: Historian's Documents, 1823-circa 1915
Series Description
This series consists of a history of the society up to 1822 and the annual reports presented by the historian every year after that at the annual meeting of the hall. Some annual reports, particularly from 1890 onwards, either were never presented or were never copied into the Historian's records.
Series Arrangement
Arranged chronologically.
History 1765-1822, 1857
Box 60 Annual Reports, 1823-1869
Box 60 Annual Reports, 1871-1894, 1904
Box 61 Annual Reports, circa 1901-circa 1915
Box 62 Series 6: Clio Hall Committee, 1889-1896
Series Description
This series contains the documents produced by the Clio Hall Committee, which was a committee of alumni members of the society responsible for constructing and furnishing a new building for the society in the 1890s. The majority of the material in this series is correspondence between the members of the committee and the contractors, other alumni of Clio, and among themselves. It also includes the minutes of the committee and their financial records among other items.
Series Arrangement
Arranged alphabetically.
Bank Books, 1890-1892
Box 63, Folder 1 Bonds, 1891 June 4-9
Box 63, Folder 2 Building Specifications, 1890-1892
Box 63, Folder 3 Construction Lien Wavers, 1891 Oct-1892 Aug
Box 63, Folder 4-5 Contents of Cornerstone, 1890
Box 63, Folder 6 Contracts, 1890-1891
Box 63, Folder 7 Correspondence, 1889 Jun-1892 Feb
Box 63, Folder 8-16 Correspondence, 1892 Mar-1894 Sep
Box 64, Folder 1-10 Correspondence, undated
Box 64, Folder 11 Correspondence Letter Book, circa 1890
Box 64, Folder 12 Laying the Cornerstone, 1890 June
Box 64, Folder 13 Minutes, 1889-1896
Box 64, Folder 14 Opening Ceremony, 1892
Box 64, Folder 15 Reports of the Committee, 1891-1895
Box 64, Folder 16 Rough Sketches - Blueprints, circa 1890
Box 64, Folder 17 Subscription Book, circa 1890
Box 64, Folder 18 Subscription Cards and Circular Letters, 1889-1893, undated
Box 64, Folder 19 Subscription Lists, 1887-1893
Box 64, Folder 20 Series 7: Trustees' Documents, (1929-1933)
Series Description
Until the 1920s, the society did not have a board of trustees, but instead depended upon the active involvement of alumni on the faculty and at the annual meetings to provide stability and guidance for the society. By the 1920s it was obvious the society needed permanent guidance, so a board of trustees was organized. The records in this series reflect the period of the society's history when Whig and Clio merged into one undergraduate body but still maintained two separate graduate boards.
Series Arrangement
Arranged chronologically.
Annual Meeting, 1929-1938
Box 65, Folder 1-6 Correspondence, 1929-1934
Box 65, Folder 7-12 Agreement for use of Clio Hall, 1935
Box 65, Folder 13 Series 8: Short-lived Committees, 1894-1907
Series Description
This series contains the documents generated by committees within Clio that did not last more than a few years and produced very little material.
Series Arrangement
Arranged alphabetically.
Upperclass Special Division Book, 1894-1895
Box 66, Folder 1 Alumni Association, 1900-1901
Box 66, Folder 2 Committee on the Welfare of Clio Hall, 1906-1907
Box 66, Folder 3 China Famine Relief Fund, 1921
Box 66, Folder 4 Series 9: Miscellaneous Documents, 1822-1939
Series Description
This series contains the documents and other materials, such as ephemera, which did not fit into any other series. Among the documents in the subseries are resolutions passed by the society but not entered in the minutes and a partial key to the Clio Secret Cipher, which was a code for writing letters about Hall matters.
Series Arrangement
Arranged alphabetically.
Secret Cipher, circa 1820
Box 66, Folder 5 Address before the Society (Anonymous), 1822
Box 66, Folder 6 Ribbons, 1890-1892
Box 66, Folder 7 Newspaper Clipping, circa 1891
Box 66, Folder 8 Application Book, 1897
Box 66, Folder 9 Insurance, 1898
Box 66, Folder 10 Subscription List for Rewiring Hall, 1904
Box 66, Folder 11 Notices to Members, 1913-1914
Box 66, Folder 12 Resolutions, 1913-1930
Box 66, Folder 13 Description of 1819 Clio Medal, 1916
Box 66, Folder 14 Tax Stamps for Pool Table, 1919
Box 66, Folder 15 Schedule of Speeches, 1919-1920
Box 66, Folder 16 Prospectus, 1926
Box 66, Folder 17 Alumni Who Returned for Meeting, 1939
Box 66, Folder 18 Letter to the Class of 1941, circa 1939
Box 66, Folder 22 Series 10: General Documents, circa 1808-circa 1930
Series Arrangement
Arranged according to subseries.
Subseries 10A: Membership Lists, Membership Registers, Class Lists, and Class Registers, circa 1808-circa 1930
Subseries Description
Membership lists are, as the name implies, lists of the members of the society during the specified period. The membership registers fulfill the same purpose, however these volumes contain the signatures of the members themselves, rather than a list prepared by one of the authors. The class lists are lists of members of individual classes prepared by one of the officers, and the class registers bear the same relationship to these as the membership registers bear to the membership lists.
Subseries Arrangement
Arranged chronologically.
List of Members Classes of 1766-1824, circa 1824
Box 67, Folder 1 List of Honorary & Adopted Graduate Members 1769-1857, circa 1857
Box 67, Folder 2 List of Members Classes of 1770-1808, circa 1808
Box 67, Folder 3 Register of Members Classes of 1846-1877, 1846-circa 1873
Box 67, Folder 3 List of Members Classes of 1820-1822, 1818-1819
Box 67, Folder 4 Register of New Members Classes of 1822-1848, 1820-circa 1846
Box 67, Folder 5 List of Honorary & Adopted Graduate Members 1822-1843, 1824-1843
Box 67, Folder 6 List of Members Classes of 1840-1848, circa 1840-1846
Box 67, Folder 6 List of Members Classes of 1847-1849, circa 1846
Box 68, Folder 1 List of Members Classes of 1848-1854, circa 1847-circa 1851
Box 68, Folder 2 List of Honorary & Adopted Graduate Members 1850-1866, 1850-1866
Box 68, Folder 3 List of Members Classes of 1851-1855, 1850-1852
Box 68, Folder 4 List of Members Classes of 1853-1858, circa 1852-circa 1855
Box 68, Folder 5 List of Members Classes of 1856-1859, 1855-1856
Box 68, Folder 6 List of Members Classes of 1860-1866, circa 1859-circa 1863
Box 68, Folder 7 List of Members Classes of 1881-1899, circa 1881-1896
Box 69, Folder 1 List of Honorary & Adopted Graduate Members 1873-1904, 1873-1904
Box 69, Folder 1 List of Honorary & Adopted Graduate Members 1895-1901, 1895-1901
Box 69, Folder 2 List of Honorary & Adopted Graduate Members 1895-circa 1913, 1903-circa 1913
Box 69, Folder 3 Register of New Members Classes of 1898-1915, circa 1896-circa 1912
Box 70, Folder 1 List of Members Classes of 1902-1905, circa 1901
Box 70, Folder 2 Class Lists Classes of 1896-1904, 1913
Box 70, Folder 3-11 Class Lists Classes of 1905-1907, 1913
Box 71, Folder 1-3 Class Lists Classes of 1909-1915, 1913
Box 70, Folder 4-10 Class Registers Classes of 1916-1917, 1912-1917
Box 70, Folder 11-12 List of Members, 1919
Box 70, Folder 13 List of Members, 1927
Box 70, Folder 14 List of Members, 1928
Box 70, Folder 15 List of Members Class of 1932, circa 1930
Box 70, Folder 16 Subseries 10B: Constitutions and By-laws, 1809-1938
Subseries Description
Constitutions and By-laws (1809-1938) - those volumes which are small enough to fit in a Hollinger box are arranged chronologically in those boxes, while volumes which were too large to fit in boxes are arranged chronologically separately from them. The constitutions and by-laws provided the structure and operating rules of the Society. The minutes record frequent minor amendments to the constitution made during the normal business meetings of the Society. These frequent amendments made it necessary to document the current version of the constitution. This subseries contains these formal recordings of the various versions of the constitution. Two versions of the constitution are in other series and subseries. The first is a constitution from 1824 in the Record Book subseries of General Documents. The second is a simplified constitution which was published in 1923 but was never adopted. Since it was never an active constitution it was put in the Publications series rather than here.
Constitution and By-laws, 1873
Box 72 Constitution and By-laws, 1873
Box 73 Constitution and By-laws, 1877
Box 74 Constitution and By-laws, 1881
Box 75 Constitution and By-laws, 1891
Box 76 Constitution and By-laws, 1895
Box 77 Constitution and By-laws, circa 1902
Box 78 Constitution and By-laws, 1910
Box 79 Constitution and By-laws (fragmentary), 1809
Box 80, Folder 1 Constitution and By-laws, circa 1825?
Box 80, Folder 2 Constitution and By-laws, circa 1823-1848
Box 80, Folder 3 Constitution and By-laws, 1855
Box 80, Folder 4 Constitution and By-laws, circa 1855
Box 81, Folder 1 Constitution and By-laws, 1861
Box 81, Folder 2 Constitution and By-laws Amendments, circa 1910
Box 81, Folder 3 Constitution and By-laws Excerpts, 1938
Box 81, Folder 4 Subseries 10C: Record Book, 1819-1843
Subseries Description
This volume contains several different types of records including:
- A list of those Clios who received prizes from the college from 1828 to 1837, compiled in 1837.
- A list of the grades and class rank of the members of the class of 1839, compiled in 1839.
- A list of those who received honors from the society from 1782 to 1857, compiled from 1822 to 1857.
- A list of those who were honorably mentioned at the examinations of college from 1807 to 1843 compiled from 1822 to 1843. This list includes all students who received honors and indicates whether they were Whigs or Clios.
- A list of people who made donations of cash or books to the society from 1781 to 1839, compiled from 1819 to 1839.
- A Constitution and By-laws from 1824.
- A treaty, adopted in 1820 and amended in 1823.
- A list of the members of the Society from the classes of 1789 to 1846, compiled from 1825 to 1843. The list of members appears to have extended back to even earlier classes, but the first pages of the book appear to have been lost.
The source of the information in this book about events prior to 1802 is unknown, since it is believed that almost all the society's records were lost in the fire of that year.
Record Book, 1819-1843
Box 82 Series 11: Joint Documents with Whig, circa 1805-1921
Series Description
This series contains material documenting the activities between Whig and Clio before their de facto merger in 1928. Activities undertaken together between 1928 and 1941, when the merger became official are in the Records of the American Whig-Cliosophic Society, AC #11.
Series Arrangement
Arranged according to subseries.
Subseries 11A: Treaties, circa 1805-1915
Subseries Description
These documents regulated the relationships between the Halls and deal especially with the subjects of secrecy and recruitment of new members. The 1882 treaty can be found in oversized folder 89.
Subseries Arrangement
Arranged chronologically.
Treaty, circa 1805-1807
Box 83, Folder 1 Treaty (amended 1873), 1871
Box 83, Folder 2 Treaty, 1872
Box 83, Folder 3 Treaty, circa 1888
Box 83, Folder 4 Treaty, 1891
Box 83, Folder 5 Treaty, 1896
Box 83, Folder 6 Treaty, circa 1902
Box 83, Folder 7 Treaty (fragment), 1915
Box 83, Folder 8 Subseries 11B: Joint Committee Reports, 1827-1921
Subseries Description
These committees were appointed from time to time by the societies to investigate violations of the treaties between the societies and also to recommend amendments to the treaties. In the twentieth century, these committees also investigated possible changes in the roles of the Halls on the changing campus.
Subseries Arrangement
Arranged chronologically.
Report of Joint Committee, 1827
Box 83, Folder 9 Report of Joint Committee, 1844
Box 83, Folder 10 Report of Joint Committee, circa 1846
Box 83, Folder 11 Report of Joint Committee, 1914
Box 83, Folder 12 Report of Joint Committee Addresses before the societies, 1921
Box 83, Folder 13 Subseries 11C: Addresses to the Societies, 1829-1881
Subseries Description
The societies regularly jointly invited men of prominence to address joint sessions of the Halls. If they were particularly impressed with the speeches, they would request copies of the texts from the speakers and then would have them printed as pamphlets at their own expense. This subseries contains those pamphlets.
Subseries Arrangement
arranged chronologically
Belknap, William W., 1871
Box 83, Folder 14 Berrien, John M., 1829
Box 83, Folder 15 Brewster, Benjamin H., 1854
Box 83, Folder 16 Brown, Alexander E., 1846
Box 83, Folder 17 Cattell, William C., 1861
Box 83, Folder 18 Chesnut, James, 1876
Box 83, Folder 19 Coxe, Richard S., 1863
Box 83, Folder 20 Cuyler, Theodore L., 1863
Box 83, Folder 21 Dallas, George M., 1831
Box 83, Folder 22 Dayton, Aaron O., 1839
Box 83, Folder 23 Dayton, William L., 1843
Box 83, Folder 24 Field, Richard S., 1869
Box 83, Folder 25 Gaston, William, 1835
Box 83, Folder 26 Gildersleeve, B. L., 1878
Box 83, Folder 27 Hall, Baynard R., 1852
Box 83, Folder 28 Jacobus, Melancthon W., 1874
Box 83, Folder 29 Johns, John, 1840
Box 83, Folder 30 Kaufman, David S., 1850
Box 83, Folder 31 Kirk, Edward N., 1865
Box 83, Folder 32 McCarter, Thomas N., 1868
Box 83, Folder 33 McIlvaine, J. H., 1859
Box 83, Folder 34 Mansfield, Edward D., 1867
Box 84, Folder 1 Mason, John T., 1850
Box 84, Folder 2 Moffatt, James C., 1857
Box 84, Folder 3 Nixon, John T., 1863
Box 84, Folder 4 Schenck, Noah H., 1867
Box 84, Folder 5 Scott, John M., 1836
Box 84, Folder 6 Southard, Samuel L., 1845
Box 84, Folder 7 Venable, Frank W., 1851
Box 84, Folder 8 Wellford, Beverly R., 1879
Box 84, Folder 9 Welsh, William H., 1881
Box 84, Folder 10 Subseries 11D: Freshmen Recruiting Information, 1890-1917
Subseries Description
This subseries contains the pamphlets and letters which the societies printed up in order to help the freshmen decide which society to join. They did this together so as to avoid electioneering by either society, which was prohibited in their treaties.
Subseries Arrangement
arranged chronologically
Address by George F. Abbay (manuscript) Freshman recruiting information, 1853
Box 84, Folder 11 Distribution of Honors between the American Whig and Cliosophic Societies, 1890
Box 84, Folder 12 To Entering Students, 1890
Box 84, Folder 13 Pamphlets of Information, 1891-1909
Box 84, Folder 14-27, 54 Facts about the American Whig and Cliosophic Societies, 1914-1917
Box 84, Folder 27-29 Recruitment Letter to Freshmen, 1917
Box 84, Folder 29 Subseries 11E: Interhall Debating, (1876-1908)
Subseries Description
This subseries contains the programs from the prize debates and oratorical contests between the societies. These contests continued after the societies merged, and more programs can be found in the Records of the American Whig-Cliosophic Society.
Subseries Arrangement
arranged alphabetically
Proposal for Debate Course Interhall Debating, 1900
Box 84, Folder 30 Class of 1876 Debate, 1887-1894
Box 84, Folder 31 Freshman Debate, 1901
Box 84, Folder 32 Junior Orator Contest, 1882, 1892
Box 84, Folder 33 Lynde Prize Debate, 1876-1895
Box 84, Folder 34-53 Lynde Prize Debate, 1896-1908
Box 85, Folder 1-12 Subseries 11F: Debating Committee, (1893-1919)
Subseries Description
This interhall committee was responsible for all intercollegiate debating for Princeton. This subseries consists mainly of the programs from the debates and the committee's financial records and correspondence.
Subseries Arrangement
Arranged alphabetically.
General Debates Debating Committee, 1890s
Box 85, Folder 13 The College Debater, 1894
Box 85, Folder 14 Correspondence, 1915-1918
Box 85, Folder 15-21 Debate Books, 1892-1913
Box 85, Folder 22-23 Debate Books, 1912-1918
Box 86, Folder 1-7 Financial Records, 1916-1917
Box 87, Folder 1 Freshmen Debate, 1913
Box 87, Folder 2 Harvard Debating, 1914
Box 87, Folder 3 Instructions to Judges, circa 1910
Box 87, Folder 4 Newspaper Article on Yale Debate, 1895
Box 87, Folder 5 Programs, 1893-1919
Box 87, Folder 6-20 Promotional Postcards, 1916-1917
Box 87, Folder 21-22 Series 12: Publications, (1837-1927)
Series Description
This series contains the materials published solely by the Cliosophic Society. Materials which were published jointly by Whig and Clio prior to 1928 can be found in Series XI: Joint Documents with Whig.
Series Arrangement
Arranged according to subseries.
Subseries 12A: Membership catalogues, 1837-1914
Subseries Description
This subseries contains the lists of members of the Society which Clio periodically published. They contain all the members of the Society from 1765 to the date of publication. The 1896 catalogue has an index of all the members of the society listed in that catalogue.
Subseries Arrangement
Arranged chronologically.
Membership Catalogues, 1837-1914
Box 88, Folder 1-13 Subseries 12B: Library Catalogues, circa 1853-1882
Subseries Description
This subseries contains the published lists of what was in the Hall library. The catalogues contain letter and number codes for each book which presumably formed some sort of location guide.
Subseries Arrangement
Arranged chronologically.
Library Catalogues, circa 1853-1855
Box 89, Folder 1-7, 19 Subseries 12C: Single Publications, 1865-1927
Subseries Description
This subseries consists of the documents published by the Society for the purposes of commemorating significant events in its history and also for fund-raising.
Subseries Arrangement
Arranged chronologically.
Centennial Celebration Program, 1865
Box 89, Folder 8 Announcement of publication of Centennial Celebration History, 1865
Box 89, Folder 9 Centennial Ode of Welcome, 1865
Box 89, Folder 10 Centennial Celebration History, 1865
Box 89, Folder 11 Clio Hall: The Laying of the Cornerstone, 1890
Box 89, Folder 12 Sesquicentennial meeting invitation, 1915
Box 89, Folder 13 Sesquicentennial Committee, 1915
Box 89, Folder 14 Sesquicentennial Committee Meeting Program, 1915
Box 89, Folder 15 Black and White Book, 1923
Box 89, Folder 16 Constitution of the American [sic] Cliosophic Society, 1923
Box 89, Folder 17 Annual Dinner, 1927
Box 89, Folder 18 Series 13: Diplomas, (1789-1906)
Series Description
This subseries contains some of the diplomas issued to Clios when they graduated from the college. The diplomas from the eighteenth century are hand written. At the beginning of the nineteenth century the Society began to have the diplomas printed.
Series Arrangement
Arranged chronologically.
Diplomas, 1789-1859
Box 90 Diplomas, 1860-1906
Box 91 Series 14: Oversize Materials, Joint Documents with Whig
Treaty, 1882
Box 91
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