Thomas Angell papers

The collection contains a two volume diary Angell kept from January 1, 1859 to July 24, 1870. In the first volume, Angell writes about life as a student at Brown University and records such events as attending a Republican meeting and seeing Abraham Lincoln speak in Providence. Angell frequently records his reaction to national events, such as the hanging of John Brown and the outbreak of the Civil War. Angell writes about life after graduation from Brown in 1862, and enlisting in the Rhode Island militia as aide de camp for General John E. Tourtellotte. He records detailed information about his home town of Greenville, Rhode Island, an area with a very large Free Will Baptist population, and writes about nearby North Scituate, Rhode Island, where he served as principal of the Lapham Institute, a now defunct Baptist school with close ties to Bates College.

In the second volume of his diary, Angell writes more about his time at Lapham Institute, and records his transition to becoming a professor at Bates College and purchasing a house in Lewiston from Oren B. Cheney, Bates College's founder. Angell records his reactions to early Bates students and faculty, and the graduation of Mary Mitchell, Class of 1869, as the first female graduate of a New England college. Angell ends the diary recording his travels in Europe.

The collection also includes a scrapbook containing a wide array of Civil War era articles, as well as Angell's receipts for voting for Abraham Lincoln in the Presidential election. The various articles pasted in the scrapbook include poetry, political satire, and notable news articles about topics such as Lincoln's inauguration, the Dred Scott case, and the fall of Fort Sumter. These clippings are pasted in an older account book, dated to circa 1800 to 1805.

The collection also includes a photograph album containing tintypes and photographs of various members of the Angell and Brown families and Thomas Angell's handwritten index of the photographs. The cover is embossed with the name Frances Brown.

Also included is Angell's journal from 1856 while attending the Thetford Academy in Vermont; a translation into French of The English Echo (1869); Angell's letters as published in the Woonsocket Patriot during his European trip (1869-1870); and a few miscellaneous papers. These last items include Angell and Brown family genealogical information, loose material removed from his scrapbook and diary, two unidentified handwritten documents of religious text, undated (but circa 1800) and possibly written by an Angell ancestor.