Results of my Yale Research Trip

If Post 1 was about the experience of visiting Yale’s libraries, this post is about what I learned once I sat down and started reading.

At Sterling Memorial Library, we spent our time with Morse family correspondence from January and February 1825, the weeks surrounding the death of Samuel Morse’s first wife, Lucretia.

Before this day at Yale, I had read some of the digitized Morse letters available on the Library of Congress website. But holding original letters written by Samuel F. B. Morse himself with his own quill pen and paper was just different. It is just as striking to read letters written by his father, Jedidiah Morse, who at that time was more famous than his son.

Reading a letter written by Samuel Morse.

But what stayed with me most was reading the letters in sequence and watching events unfold in real time.

Here is the timeline as it appeared in the correspondence:

📜 January 1825

Lucretia writes to Samuel in NYC, pleading with him to come home to Connecticut before leaving for Washington, D.C. She tells him their child hardly recognizes him because he has been away so often. Her wording seemed sincere, not sarcastic. Enough to make any parent feel guilty.  

He does return for a short visit before leaving again.

📜 Early February

Samuel is in Washington working on his portrait of the Marquis de Lafayette. Lucretia is in New Haven, recovering after the birth of their third child.

📜 February 7

A letter from Samuel’s father reports that Lucretia is resting and recovering. The tone is calm and nonchalant.  Tragically, she dies later that same day after the letter was already sent out.

📜 February 8

Jedidiah Morse writes a heartbreaking letter to his son with the news that Lucretia has died.

📜 February 9

Not knowing any of this, Samuel writes a letter to Lucretia, describing an exciting day in Washington. He writes about his work painting Lafayette, that he met the new president, John Quincy Adams.

He is writing to his wife after her death without knowing it.

Reading that sequence in order made the timing feel very real. The delay in communication, the distance, and how quickly everything changed.

There was more.

📜 Late February

I read letters between Samuel’s brothers, writing to each other about the loss. Their grief came through clearly, even for New Englanders.

I did not expect the letter from Lucretia’s father, mourning his daughter. That one was especially difficult. Such an unexpected loss of his treasured child.

These were not just names from history. They were a family trying to make sense of sudden loss.  They were writing letters that took days to arrive, not knowing what the other person already knew.

February 2026

Now, in 2026, with their correspondence preserved in neat manila folders and placed in front of me, I was able to follow the story as it unfolded, letter by letter. It felt like the Morse family preserved it and was waiting for me to find it 201 years later. 

As Samuel’s first cousin six times removed, that felt especially meaningful. That's more than I can ask from any research trip.

Family member name: Samuel F. B. Morse
Years of life: 1791-1872

Places lived: Charlestown, MA; New Haven, CT; Poughkeepsie, NY

Tree branch: Pearson
Relation: My 1st cousin 6x removed (my dad's dad's mom's mom's mom's mom's 1st cousin)

Sources:

Sterling Memorial Library - Yale University

A Day in Yale's Libraries (Part 1)

In early February 2026, my husband and I spent the day at Yale University, moving from library to library in pursuit of 200-year-old Morse family history.

Yale has twelve libraries. We visited four.

Sterling Memorial Library

We began at Sterling Memorial Library, the Gothic cathedral of books. The Manuscripts and Archives room opens at 9:00 a.m., and we were there when the doors unlocked.

Two archival boxes were waiting for us: Morse family correspondence. Inside each box were neat rows of legal size manilla folders filled with letters written in the early 1800s.

No glass case. No white gloves. I kept looking around... am I allowed to touch this?  Yes! They just let you handle 200-year old original letters with your hands.

The reading room itself is lovely.  The wooden tables and chairs felt like they were added to a side chapel of a Gothic church.

Bass Library

From Sterling, we made our way underground through Yale’s tunnel system to Bass Library. (Did I kind of feel like a student? Maybe!)

This was where we viewed an 1806 edition of Geography Made Easy by Jedidiah Morse — Samuel’s father, and at the time, the more famous Morse.

I had imagined a large textbook. Instead, it was small — almost the size of a modern pocket journal — with a delicate fold-out map at the front. Eek! Don't tear it!

When the book was published, Maine wasn’t a state yet. It was still referred to as the “District of Maine.”  The book was new when the nation was new.  The country itself was still being defined, and the textbook was trying to keep up.  The 1806 edition was one of several abridgements.

Beinecke Library

Among the typical Yale Ivy League campus buildings stands this prominent, yet out-of-place mid-century modern cube of a building. But go inside, and WOW.

The Beinecke is open to the public, thank goodness because it is amazing.  Inside stands five stories of shelving holding beautiful rare books and manuscripts. Those shelves are enclosed in a huge glass box.  The architect was a genius.  

The research material I requested from this library didn't pan out, but we were happy just to visit and admire.  They also have a Gutenberg Bible on display and original huge Audobon books with lovely illustrations of birds.

Yale Divinity Library

Our final library was the Yale Divinity Library.

Getting in required a few logistical hoops — the public doesn’t simply walk in — but once inside, the effort was worth it.

The Archives room was nothing fancy. Basically a storage room with white walls.  It was small, with only two long tables.  But the walls were stacked with file boxes and books, as if a major reorganization project was underway. There we viewed Jedidiah Morse’s work on Indian affairs, complete with another fold-out map, as well as additional correspondence between his New England clergy friends.

The main reading room is exactly what you imagine: wood paneling, green-shaded lamps, leather chairs, a creeky staircase to a second floor balcony overlooking the main area, and oil portraits watching from the walls.  Students filled those small upper balconies.

By the end of the day, we had handled letters, textbooks, sermons, and maps — all original.

Four libraries. Four different atmospheres. One very full day.

And that was just the setting. The real story was in the letters.  The results of my research!

(That’s Part 2.)

Preparing for my Yale research trip!

I'm going to Yale!  For the day!  To do research in their libraries.  Here is the behind-the-scenes account of my preparation.

Family member name: Morse family
Years of life:  1760s - 1880s

Places lived: New Haven, Connecticut

Tree branch: Titus
Relation: My 4x great-grandmother's cousins 

I think we have established that I love libraries.  Also I enjoy doing research.  Although most of the family history research I do is sitting at my little computer in the corner of my bedroom or on my iPad Mini lying down on the couch.  Both of those are great.  Also, I read a lot of history books that I check out from my awesome local library.  Shout out to real paper books!

But guess what? I'm going to go hold some original research material in my hot little hands.

Why Yale?

I have wanted to visit Yale for a long time.  I've heard that their art museum is fantastic.  But also I've wanted to walk around the town and campus because two or more of my relatives attended Yale University back in the day. 

* Jedidiah Morse, Jr. graduated from Yale in 1783.  He is my 5th great-granduncle.

* Samuel F. B. Morse (yes, of Morse code fame) graduated Yale in the Class of 1810.  He is my 1st cousin 6x removed.  Jedidiah's son.

For years, I've wanted to just stroll the grounds of their alma matter to walk in their footsteps.  

So why not combine the trip?  Stroll and research is a good combo.

The Legitimate Red Tape

I didn't really expect this part of the preparation to necessarily be easy, but I guess I expected something more straightforward. 

 

I’m hoping to consult five specific research items.  So here's what you have to do:

1. Create an account with Yale Libraries.  Check!

2. Search for your items.  Check!

3. Submit a request for the items to be available on your specified date.  Um, kind of check.

All of this is very reasonable since most manuscripts and archives just aren't out on shelves for the public to put their oily hands on.  They are in climate-controlled, acid-free storage units either behind locked doors or off-site.

I'm only hoping to consult five items.  All of my items were listed as available. The challenge hasn’t been access, but logistics. 

The Logistical Challenge

Yale has about 10 libraries.  So my logical question was, Can I read them all at the same library?

Answer: No.

* Two items will be at Sterling Memorial Library 

* One can be requested to Sterling even though it’s also associated with the Beinecke Library (request for Sterling in progress)

* One item is housed at the Divinity Library (which I hadn’t considered visiting). 

* The final item should also be available at Sterling — except the website keeps throwing an error when I try to submit

To keep all of this straight, I had to make a spreadsheet. But I’m not sad about that.

And More Challenges

But also, is it wrong to expect the website of one of the world's finest universities to actually work?  Since my day job involves software User Experience, I was quite disappointed.  My quality assurance tests did not pass.

Don't get me wrong, their website looks great. It just doesn't work for me.  I can't request that 5th item and now I can't even log in.  Didn't expect to spend my lunch hour on the phone with Eric, the Yale IT guy who tried to help but nothing worked.

All requests need to be submitted 48-hours ahead and we’re cutting it close. 

Will be such a shame if I can’t access one particular book just because of a computer glitch. Let’s hope a helpful librarian can come to the rescue.

Stay tuned!

Sources:

Yale Library

Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library