Colden, Cadwallader. Cadwallader Colden Papers (9 vols) Collections of the New-York Historical Society, 1917-23, 1934, 1935. New York: Printed for the Society, 1918-1937. First Editions. [9492]
Nine volumes in green cloth, five are in original bindings, four are in later (1965) bindings. All bindings tight, almost no shelf-wear, clean pp. These measure 9 1/2 x 6 inches, and vary in the number of pages. Each volume has an analytical index. The end paper hinges in vol. IV are partly torn. Very good. Hardcover.
"One cannot read the correspondence of Cadwallader Colden and peruse his philosophical and scientific papers without realizing what a genius he was and wondering why he did not achieve greatness in the country he had served so faithfully during a long life. He is most familiarly known as the Tory Lieutenant Governor of New York at the outbreak of the Revolutionary War while his wonderful range of knowledge has been quite lost sight of." - Preface to Vol. I.
The original seven-volume series as issued in Collections for 1912-1923, with the two later supplemental volumes. Volume VIII is "Additional Papers, 1715-1748" and Volume IX is "Additional Papers 1749-1775, and some of Colden's Writings."
The letters are not strictly of a personal nature, and include scientific, military (French & Indian War), and governmental writings, Indian affairs, as well as letters addressed to Colden and his wife.
Some of the correspondents are Dr. Samuel Johnson, Benjamin Franklin, John Bartram, Bishop Berkeley, Gov. George Clinton, John Rutherfurd, Peter Collinson, Gronovius, Carolus Linnaeus, Philip Livingston, Gov. William Shirley, James Alexander, William Burnet, James Delancey, Guy Carleton, Sir William Johnson, &c., &c., &c.
Cadwallader Colden (1688-1776), b. Duns, Scotland; d. Spring Hill, near Flushing, Long Island, New York. Colden was a physician and colonial official. After studying medicine at Edinburgh and London, in 1708 he emigrated to America.
"After practising medicine for ten years in Philadelphia, he was invited to settle in New York by Governor Hunter, and in 1718 was appointed the first surveyor-general of the colony. Becoming a member of the provincial council in 1720, he served for many years as its president, and from 1761 until his death was lieutenant-governor; for a considerable period of time, in the interim between the appointment of governors, he was acting-governor...As early as 1729 he had built a country house called Coldenham on the line between Ulster and Orange counties, where he spent most of his time until 1761. Aristocratic and extremely conservative, he had a violent distrust of popular government and a strong aversion to the popular party of New York. Naturally he came into frequent conflict with the growing sentiment in the colony in opposition to royal taxation...Colden was widely known among scientists and men of letters in England and America. He was a life-long student of botany, and was the first to introduce to America the classification system of Linnaeus, who gave the name 'Coldenia' to a newly recognized genus. He was an intimate friend of Benjamin Franklin. He wrote several medical works of importance in their day...and his Reflections (1770) mark his as the first of American materialists and one of the ablest materialist philosophers of his day." - Encyclopedia Britannica, 11th edition.
Also, he served as the first colonial representative to the Iroquois Confederacy, an experience that resulted in his writing The History of the Five Indian Nations (1727), the first book on the subject.