Format: Web Page
Finding aid URL: https://archivesspace.lafayette.edu/repositories/2/resources/18
The Lafayette College Meteorological Records, 1849-1909, contain weather observations initially kept by the Meteorological Association of Lafayette College, beginning with Adam Ramsay McCoy as scribe in 1849. The observations were later continued by Selden Jennings Coffin under the direction of the Smithsonian Institution, the U.S. Army Signal Service and its successor, the Weather Bureau. The collection contains eleven folders of meteorological observations including two books. The Meteorological Journal contains weather data recorded at Lafayette College from January 1849- January 1850, April 1856-June 1858, and December 1859-February 1860. The journal also includes the constitution of the Meteorological Association of Lafayette College and a list of members dated December 1849. The second book, Voluntary Observer’s Meteorological Record for the Weather Bureau contains charts with daily observations from 1885-1905. Both record books feature monthly charts populated with meteorological data including maximum and minimum temperatures, barometric readings, wind direction and velocity, rain and snow totals, relative humidity, cloud characteristics, and descriptions of daily atmospheric conditions and general remarks. Other records include a small handwritten notebook containing rain and snow totals at Lafayette College from 1863-1868; two registers of meteorological observations under the direction of the Smithsonian Institution for February 1858 and June 1860 signed by Selden Coffin; rain records for the Signal Service, U.S. Army for the year 1885 and January-February 1886; handwritten rain records on ruled paper for years 1886-1888; and a single sheet of meteorological observations for the Franklin Institute dated May 1858.