Converted to EAD3 : Encoded Archival Description (EAD), Version 3 : Release: 1.1.1 : Release Date: 2019-12-16. Validating against latest version of schema.
Contact information: http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.mss/mss.contact
Catalog Record: https://lccn.loc.gov/mm77022707
Collection material in English
The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in the LC Catalog. They are grouped by name of person or organization, by subject or location, and by occupation and listed alphabetically.
The papers of Lewis Reeves Gibbes, mathematician and naturalist, were purchased by the Library of Congress in 1916. Additional items were given by S. P. Gibbes in 1932.
The Lewis Reeves Gibbes Papers were processed for filming in 1977. The finding aid was revised in 2003.
The status of copyright in the unpublished writings of Lewis Reeves Gibbes is governed by the Copyright Law of the United States (Title 17, U.S.C.).
The papers of Lewis Reeves Gibbes are open to research. Researchers are advised to contact the Manuscript Reading Room prior to visiting. Many collections are stored off-site and advance notice is needed to retrieve these items for research use.
A microfilm edition of these papers is available on eight reels. Consult reference staff in the Manuscript Division concerning availability for purchase or interlibrary loan. To promote preservation of the originals, researchers are required to consult the microfilm edition as available.
Researchers wishing to cite this collection should include the following information: Container or reel number, Lewis Reeves Gibbes Papers, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.
The papers of Lewis Reeves Gibbes (1810-1894) span the years 1793-1894, with the bulk of the material from Gibbes's tenure as a professor at the College of Charleston, 1838-1894. The collection consists almost entirely of correspondence received, but also includes clippings, calling cards , resolutions, scientific circulars, announcements, specimen lists, reports of experiments, various memorabilia, and some copies of letters sent which were nearly all typed or written by others after Gibbes's death.
Also in the collection are letters received by two of Gibbes's forebears, Robert Gibbes and Lewis S. Gibbes. Dating from 1793 to the late 1820s, they vary in content from an item of 1800 commenting on the recent national elections, to correspondence relating to St. John's Protestant Episcopal Church, John's Island, South Carolina, to a series of letters from the guardian of a family member studying at Harvard College. An addendum to the collection contains correspondence of James MacBride , 1784-1817, a South Carolina botanist whose papers were included among the original purchase of the Gibbes Papers. Included are letters from Thomas Smith Grimké and John C. Calhoun when he was a young congressman active in the cause of war with Britain, 1811-1813.
Scion of a prominent South Carolinian family, Lewis Gibbes returned to South Carolina after medical study abroad in the mid-1830s to become professor of mathematics, physics, and astronomy at the College of Charleston. His papers document extensive connections with educators and university administrators, particularly in the South and focus on scientific and research undertakings. An early contributor to the Smithsonian Institution, he was a member of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia. The Civil War interrupted but did not terminate his correspondence with scientists outside the Confederacy.
The Gibbes Papers are as much a source of information about the work of Gibbes's peers as of his own studies. Important correspondents include Alexander Dallas Bache, James D. Dana, Asa Gray, and Joseph Henry, all of whom shared technical data and exchanged botanical, zoological, or geological specimens. The correspondence with Gray is especially notable for the longevity of their communication and because it includes copies of Gibbes's replies. Other significant material includes descriptions of experiments, specifications for laboratory devices, meteorological readings, circulars containing news of recent publications and announcements of scientific meetings, astronomical reports from observatories around the nation, communications with publishers and manufacturers of scientific instruments, and field reports from colleagues and former students throughout the United States and Europe.
There is little concerning Gibbes's private life in these papers. Two exceptions are the letters he received from Robert W. Gibbes prior to the Civil War and letters from S. P. Ravenel after the war. Other than a letter Gibbes wrote to his brother John while a student at South Carolina College in 1828, the collection contains no correspondence with immediate family members.
Additional correspondents include Stephen Alexander, Jacob Whitman Bailey, E. R. Beadle, Amos Binney, Langdon Cheves, Thomas Cooper, James D. B. DeBow, Henry William DeSaussure, Charles Ellet, Elizabeth Fries Lummis Ellet, James Espy, Alex M. Forster, Benjamin Apthorp Gould, Samuel Steman Haldeman, Edward Claudius Herrick, John Lawrence LeConte, Joseph LeConte, Elias Loomis, Joseph Lovering, G. E. Manigault, Francis Markoe, Matthew Fontaine Maury, C. G. Memminger, Robert Treat Paine, James L. Petigru, C. C. Pinckney, William C. Redfield, E. S. Ritchie, John Daniel Runkle, Jared Sparks, William Stimpson, David Humphreys Storer, William Henry Trescot, M. Tuomey, Joseph Winlock, and William Wurdemann.
The collection is arranged in three series:
Available on microfilm. Shelf no. 17,327
Bound volumes of correspondence received and a few copies of letters sent with related lists, reports of experiments, circulars and announcements, resolutions, calling cards, and miscellaneous items.
Arranged chronologically.
Letters received and copies of letters sent.
Arranged alphabetically by name or correspondent and therein chronologically.
Calling cards.
Mostly correspondence received, with an index.
Arranged chronologically.