The First Printed Rutgers Library Catalogue: A Sesquicentennial Reprint

Abstract

TH E Covenant of 1825—for such was the term for reorganization at that time—between the Board of Trustees of Queen's College and the General Synod of the Reformed Dutch Church, began a new chapter in Rutgers history. Undergraduate instruction, in abeyance since 1816, was restarted, the Rev. Dr . Philip M i l ledoler was elected President, and the College was renamed in honor of Colonel Henry Rutgers. Professor John De Witt of the Theological Seminary received from the College the resounding title of Professor of Belles Lettres, Elements of Criticism and Logic, a hopeful augury for the future, and the congregations were again asked for contributions for the support of the library, which since 1810, when the Rev. D r . John H . Livingston assumed the presidency of the College and inaugurated theological instruction in New Brunswick, had served both the Seminary and the College. From the very earliest days of the College the Acts and Proceedings of the General Synod refer constantly to the need for books. Even so, according to a June 1814 report, the library could only muster upwards of 200 volumes at that time. A donation by Mrs . Margaret Chinn in 1821, at the instance of the Rev. John De Witt, 1