Name/Title
Packard Smyth Little HouseEntry/Object ID
1978.10.aDescription
A black & white photo of Packard Smyth Little House (also known as the Packard-Smyth House) on College St.
Information taken from Mark Cheetham's "Facts & Legends Concerning the Underground Railroad in Topsham and Brunswick, Maine" on the Curtis Memorial Library Website:
"A double house built in 1827 at 6-8 College Street on the south side of the street, next door to the Newman House. Professor Alpheus Spring Packard and Professor William Smyth were the first to live here. This building later become the John Brown Russwurm African American Center named for the first black graduate of Bowdoin College, Class of 1826. He was the coeditor of “Freedom’s Journal,” the first Black newspaper in the United States and in 1836 become Governor of Liberia, holding this position until 1851.
Prof. Alpheus Spring Packard - Born in 1798, graduated from Bowdoin College in 1816 and in 1825 was chosen as Professor of Languages and Classical Literature. In 1842 chosen Professor of Political Economy. The passage of the Kansas - Nebraska Act in 1854 repealed the Missouri Compromise and instead it required that the inhabitants of prospective territories vote on whether they would enter the union as a slave or free state. The idea came of organized emigration from free states to Kansas to provide that the vote would be for a free state. The New England Emigrant Aid Society was founded, to aid free staters to relocate to Kansas, and some 728 moved there from Maine by 1860. Prof. A. S. Packard of Bowdoin College was one of the promoters of this effort in Maine. In 1869 became the college librarian, holding this position until 1881. Was the acting President of the college for a year. He spent 58 years at Bowdoin College and died in 1884.
Prof. William Smyth - He was born in 1797 and became a strong and vocal abolitionist. Graduated from Bowdoin College in 1822 and in 1824 taught at a private school on Maine Street in Brunswick. In 1825 was chosen Associate Professor of Mathematics & Natural Philosophy for Bowdoin College; made full Professor in 1828. He was chosen as a delegate to a meeting of the Maine Antislavery Society in Augusta in 1838. There he was chosen as the Secretary of that society. Was the editor of the Advocate of Freedom, an antislavery newspaper published in Brunswick 1838 - 1839, in Hallowell thereafter. He was in 1851 on the Building Committee for Brunswick’s Village School District and Chairman of the Board of Agents. Prof. Smyth died in 1868. "Lexicon
Search Terms
Packard Smith Little House, A. O. Reed, Packard Smyth House American Center, Bowdoin College, College Street