1
●
(AFRICAN-AMERICANS.)
Family papers of Richard Henry Green—
perhaps the first African-American graduate of Yale.
95 items in 10 folders (0.3 linear
feet) including 4 letters received by and 2 receipts issued to Richard Henry Green, 1857-
75, as well as correspondence and other papers of his father, wife, daughter, and
brother-in-law; various sizes and conditions.
Vp, 1855-1910 and 1948
[1,000/1,500]
Richard Henry Green (1833-1877) was an 1857 graduate of Yale College—and perhaps the
first African-American to take an undergraduate degree there. We here offer a small collection of
his personal correspondence and other family papers.
Edward Bouchet of the class of 1874 is often described as the first African-American graduate
of Yale College; Cortlandt Creed was an 1857 graduate of the medical school. Green may
have passed as white during his time at Yale. However, his father was a well-known lay leader
in New Haven’s African-American Episcopal church, and one published source from Green’s
lifetime discusses his race and his status as a pioneer. In 1875, the American Educational
Annual wrote: “Five colored men have been graduated from the different schools of Yale. The
first was Richard Henry Green of the class of 1857, who became a physician, graduating in the
Medical School at Dartmouth” (page 166). A short biography of Green appears in the
“Obituary Record of Graduates of Yale College,” page 268, which gives the outline of his
career and states that he was the son of Richard Green of New Haven, but makes no reference
to his race. However, his claim is supported by census records, where he is shown living with his
father Richard in New Haven in 1850 and 1860. In 1850, he is listed as a 17-year-old
mulatto clerk, and in 1860 as a 26-year-old black teacher. He served during the Civil War as
an assistant surgeon in the Navy. In 1864, he married a white Vermont woman named
Charlotte Ann Caldwell (1836-1906). In the 1870 census, he was a physician in Hoosick,
NY, and was listed as white. He seems to have slipped into obscurity after his untimely death
from heart disease in 1877. See the recent New York Times article, “Discovery Leads Yale to
Revise a Chapter of its Black History,” 1 March 2014.
This collection includes 4 letters addressed to Richard Henry Green from various friends,
1857-69 * Two receipts made out to Green from 1875 * One page of medical notes, author
unknown * and a letter from father Richard Green Sr. to his new daughter-in-law Charlotte,
1864. None of these items specifically address the subject of Green’s race, but they do offer
significant biographical details. A letter from Yale classmate Louis P. Morehouse in November
1857 passes on news of a teaching position in Middleport, IL. In 1861, Josiah G. Dearborn
of Manchester, NH offers Green a position as private tutor to his daughter, signing as “your
friend & brother.” In 1866, a patient named Mrs. A.M. Bissell wrote from Connecticut to
thank Green for “delicate & brotherly attentions shown me at Portsmouth” during her difficult
pregnancy, adding that “I felt a confidence in you which I do not entertain towards any
physician near us.”
These come with a larger collection of Green and Caldwell family papers (87 items, most
1855-1910), which place the Richard Henry Green papers in context and establish that he
was the 1857 Yale graduate, including letters to and from his wife Charlotte Ann (Caldwell)
Green (1836-1906), his daughter Charlotte M. “Lottie” (Green) Whitely (1870-1942),
and his brother-in-law John Caldwell (born 1841). John Caldwell was a New York dry goods
merchant who attempted to make his fortune as a carpetbagger in Mobile and New Orleans
shortly after the Civil War; among his accounts is a listing for “negro shoes.” An inventory is
available upon request.
PRINTED & MANUSCRIPT
A M E R I C A N A
Public Auction Sale 2344 April 8, 2014 1:30 pm
