The Smithsonian Library 275 



1838 he received the degree of Master of Arts from Brown 

 University, and in 1840 was graduated at the Andover Theo- 

 logical Seminary. He had devoted himself more especially 

 to philology, Oriental languages, and antiquities ; and had 

 made a plan for extended travels through the East. 



" He was unexpectedly delayed in the accomplishment of 

 this plan by the misdirection of a letter, and that apparently 

 slight circumstance determined his subsequent course, and 

 gave complexion to all his after life." * 



While pursuing his theological course in Andover he as- 

 sisted in the arrangement of the library and the preparation 

 of its catalogue. From 1840 to 1841 he was the principal of 

 Day's Academy in Wrentham, Massachusetts. 



Brown University had been for some time making an effort 

 to increase its library, and the Honorable Nicholas Brown 

 had erected a special building for a library and chapel. It 

 had been the custom for a member of the faculty, in addition 

 to his teaching functions, to take charge of the library, but 

 this plan was found unsatisfactory, and on October 7, 1841, 

 the Board of Trustees passed a resolution that " Mr. Charles 

 C. Jewett, of Salem, Massachusetts, be employed, under the 

 direction of the library committee, to make out a new and 

 approved catalogue of the University library." 



This catalogue was completed and published in the autumn 

 of 1843. It consists of two parts, a descriptive catalogue of 

 the works in the library and an index of subjects, and at once 

 brought Mr. Jewett into favorable notice, being declared " so 

 original and intrinsically valuable, that it at once placed him 

 at the head of the bibliographers of this country." 1 In 1843 

 Mr. Jewett was appointed professor of modern languages and 



1 New England Historical and Genealogical Register, Volume XXII, 1868, page 365. 



2 Ibidem. 



