Nathaniel Hawthorne’s copy of the Laws of Bowdoin College
Brunswick: Printed by Joseph Griffin, 1824.
The George J. Mitchell Department of Special Collections & Archives, Nathaniel Hawthorne Collection, Gift: In memory of Edward A. Noyes by Sidney Webb Noyes.
The Laws of Bowdoin College were published for two purposes: to publicize the rules and regulations for administering the College, and to convey to students how they were expected to conduct themselves within the College community. As such, the Laws served both as a summary of the College by-laws and as a student handbook.
Although surnamed “Hathorne” throughout his youth and college days, these doodlings show that American author and 1825 Bowdoin graduate Nathaniel Hawthorne was already considering other spelling forms. Whether he ultimately added the “w” to insure the soft “a” pronunciation or to return to an ancient form of the family name—as he later claimed—has never been proved.