Since the theory is that Brown University was the account holder for & user of the Providence Post Office crayon- & pencil-ruled panes, I have attempted to provide evidence, even if circumstantial, that each cover originated from a person affiliated with, in one capacity or another, with Brown. If anyone has additional information on the person(s) listed, please email me. The following summarizes my research.
Wilbour had left Brown without graduating, & had apparently not maintained any connection with the University. In 1854 he went to work for the New York Herald Tribune (related cover). Helped along by Horace Greeley, he made friends, among them William Marcy “Boss” Tweed, who lured Wilbour away to work for the New York Transcript. Wilbour was also employed simultaneously by the city of New York as stenographer in the Bureau of Elections and in the Superior Court and also as Examiner of Accounts. When the Tweed ring was smashed in 1871, Wilbour & his family sailed for France. In Paris he met Egyptologist Gaston Maspero, & was encouraged to study Egyptology. In 1880 he began his visits to Egypt, & in 1886 acquired his own sailing dahabiyeh, named “The Seven Hathors,” in which he & his family sailed on the Nile in the winters. They spent the summers in Paris, New York, or Little Compton. Wilbour, although respected by his fellow Egyptologists, studied for his own pleasure & chose never to publish any of his research.
CONCLUSION: While not able to find any information from the sender (U.W. Lowto) of the letters to C.E. Wilbour, the header of both letters contains “Brown University June 8, ’55” and “Brown University July 15, ’55”.
Transition to Philosophical Egoism:
The return of Josiah Warren to Boston early in 1863 & his subsequent influence upon segments of the radicals of the city & its vicinity has been noted. It was in this same year that he was to meet the young Garrisonian abolitionist Ezra (Hervey) Heywood (1829-1893) and turn the latter’s efforts into the more obscure channel of radical economic thought. Heywood, a native of Westminster, Massachusetts, & the recipient of two academic degrees from Brown University, had become associated with William Lloyd Garrison in February, 1858, entering into the anti-slavery movement in Boston with considerable vigor. Having previously abandoned training for the ministry, he disassociated himself from the cause of negro freedom with the outbreak of hostilities in 1861, being also a nonresistant and an opponent of violence. The outbreak of bloodshed ended his support of the Northern cause, although he continued to deprecate slavery, and inconsistently, to rejoice in later years at its destruction by the means which he most deplored.
FACT: On July 20, 1838, the Beta Chapter of the Delta Phi Fraternity established a new branch at Brown University. The Union Chapter granted a charter to nine men on July 28, 1838 permitting them to found the Alpha of Rhode Island, Beta of Delta Phi. The nine founders were William Brantley Jr., Obil Briggs, Charles Burnett, John Dodge, Benjamin Franklin, William Gaston (later the Governor of MA), Frank Griffin, Jonas Sleeper & Edwin Larned. Delta Phi at Brown was first located in North Slater & later in Wilbour Hall, which is near the Eqyptology building next to the Rockefeller Library
Wilbour Hall, BrownFACT: George Washington Greene (1811-1883) was an ex-professor from Brown University (he was appointed in the spring of 1848 as an instructor in modern languages, a position he occupied until 1852. In 1850-51 & 1851-52 courses in Italian & Spanish were offered.)
In 1852 he moved to NY City & devoted his time to study & writing, & was especially occupied with working on the biography of his much admired grandfather, General Nathanael Greene.
