Dana Colburn was raised on his family farm in West Dedham, however after a severe illness left him disabled, he decided to pursue a more academic career. He studied at Bridgewater Normal School and traveled across Massachusetts with Horace Mann and others to instruct teachers. He then established a private Normal School on Weybosset Street in Providence with Samuel Greene, the Superintendent of Schools in Providence and head of the Brown University Normal Department, in 1852.
In 1854, following a vote by the General Assembly to establish a State Normal School, the institution opened in a room on the second floor of a former church on Weybosset and Eddy Streets, with Dana Colburn named principal. The school opened with 27 students and quickly grew to 97 under Colburn’s leadership. However, in 1857, the Normal School was moved to Bristol, RI and funding reduced, impacting student accessibility. In 1859, Principal Colburn was thrown from a carriage and killed at the age of 36.
The collection contains a letter of recommendation that Dana Colburn wrote for Susan Howland, certifying that she was a student at the Rhode Island Normal School for three terms. In the letter, Colburn recommended her for a teaching position in the Rhode Island public school system.
Researchers are advised to contact Rhode Island College Special Collections for questions regarding permissions to reproduce, distribute, or otherwise publish material from this collection. Although Rhode Island College has physical ownership of the collection, it does not necessarily hold literary rights. It is up to the researcher to determine the owners of the literary rights and to obtain any necessary permissions from them.
The collection is open for research.
Dana Colburn letter of recommendation for student, CA-0109, Special Collections, James P. Adams Library, Rhode Island College.
The collection is one item.
After Rhode Island College of Education President William Gaige received the letter, it was given to "Miss O'Neill" for an exhibition (likely for the college centennial in 1954) and then filed in the “archives.” In 1978, the letter was transferred from a safe in the Rhode Island College Records Office to Special Collections by Burt Cross.
The collection was described by Veronica L. Denison, Digital Archivist and Special Collections Librarian, in 2025.
The letter was in the possession of "Mrs. Buffum," who was a secretary for A.L. Kelley, President of The Old Stone Bank in Providence, RI. Buffum, whose mother might have been Susan Howland based on a note on the original letter, gave the letter to Kelley, who then sent the letter to Rhode Island College of Education President William Gaige in 1954.
The collection has not been digitized and is not available online.