Books and Manuscripts

(New Haven, Connecticut), 1824-27. 8vo. Class of 1825 graduate Oliver Ellsworth Huntington's yearbook, comprising approximately 98 autograph inscriptions, notes, and quotes, largely from Huntington's 1825 graduating classmates, as well as additional entries from members of the classes of 1824 and 1826. Original three-qaurter red morocco over marbled paper-covered boards, red morocco cover label, stamped in gilt, boards and extremities rubbed; all edges trimmed; inscribed by Huntington's son, Henry S. Huntington on front free endpaper, "The Yale College Class-book of my Father, Oliver Ellsworth Huntington"; scattered light foxing.

A scarce and early Yale University yearbook, inscribed by members of the graduating classes of 1824 and 1825, to fellow student and graduate of the class of 1825, Oliver Ellsworth Huntington (1802-77). Notable entries include Samuel Maverick (1803-70), fellow 1825 graduate and future legendary Texas lawyer and land baron, signer of the Texas Declaration of Independence, and source of the term "maverick."; Rev. George William Perkins, Presbyterian minister and abolitionist active in the Underground Railroad; Elizur Wright, abolitionist, mathematician, and the "father of life insurance"; Elias Warner Leavenworth, Mayor of Syracuse and Congressman from New York from 1875-77; Willis Hall, New York State Attorney General from 1839-42; Rev. Richard Falley Cleveland, father of 22nd and 24th president Grover Cleveland; Thomas Hinckley Bond, New York and Connecticut state politician; Rev. William Twining, abolitionist and founder of what would become Wabash College; Worthington Hooker, professor of medicine at Yale and vice-president of the American Medical Association; William Bennett Fleming, Georgia congressman in 1879; Seabury Ford, governor of Ohio from 1849-50; William Gelston Bates, Massachusetts state senator and congressman; and many more.

Huntington was born in Norwich, Connecticut on September 3, 1802. He married Mary Ann Strong on June 10, 1830, and had four children, including Henry Strong Huntington (who inscribed this volume) on July 15, 1836. Following his graduation from Yale, Oliver moved to New Haven where he attended medical lectures, and then to New York City, where he pursued mercantile business. In 1837 he moved his family to Cleveland, Ohio and operated a pharmacy until his retirement, in 1857. Following the death of his wife Mary in 1840 he married Eunice Kimberly Hitchcock in 1854. He died in Cleveland in 1877. Henry, his only surviving child, graduated from Yale in 1857, and became a Presbyterian minister, serving in New York and in California.