This collection (24 items) contains 22 letters that Wilbur Fisk received while serving as president of the Wesleyan Academy in Wilbraham, Massachusetts, in the early 19th century. Most writers were parents of current and prospective students.
Many writers requested that Fisk personally oversee their child's academic, moral, and religious education; others mentioned boarding arrangements and textbooks; and some referred to tuition payments. Two letters pertain to donations to the school's collection of mineral samples, including a letter from William Prescott concerning his efforts to acquire minerals and offering his advice that the school should prioritize scientific education over the study of dead languages (June 8, 1829). Amos Binney, Jr., wrote that he intended to send a case of samples acquired from the area around Mount Vesuvius (June 16, 1823). The final item is an unsigned letter addressed to D. P. Robinson regarding a man who refused to pay a note owed to a Board of Trustees in Wilbraham, Massachusetts (August 20, 1849).
Wilbur Fisk was born in Brattleboro, Vermont, on August 31, 1792, the son of Isaiah Fisk (1763-1859) and Hanna Bacon (1760-1845). He attended the University of Vermont before graduating from Brown University in 1815. Fisk became a licensed Methodist preacher on March 14, 1818, and worked with several churches in Vermont and Massachusetts. In 1822, he became an elder of the New England Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church. Between 1825 and 1831, he served as the first president of the Wesleyan Academy in Wilbraham, Massachusetts, and in 1831 he became the first president of Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut. He represented New England at three Methodist General Conferences, and was an active participant in the American Colonization Society, as well as an advocate for educational societies and temperance reform. He remained at Wesleyan University until his death on February 22, 1839.
