Constitution: Harvard’s 1802 Class Wine

A bottle of Madeira wine embossed with the seal “Constitution Class of 1802” in the museum’s collection has a rich, complex history waiting to be uncorked.

Donated to the museum by the Saltonstall family, the bottle’s seal has an intriguing reference to an unspecified “Class of 1802.” After consulting numerous newspaper articles and contemporary writings, museum staff discovered that the class referenced is the Harvard College Class of 1802, which contained two members of the Saltonstall family: Leverett Saltonstall and James Everett. Everett served on USS Constitution as a chaplain from 1835 to 1837, when he died at Port Mahon. However, Constitution did not visit Madeira while Everett was on board, so he did not procure this bottle of wine.

A December 13, 1886, Boston Evening Transcript excerpt provides some context about the bottle. The Harvard Class of 1802 would meet for dinners every fortnight at the Maverick House in East Boston and the bottles of wine shared at those dinners had the seal “Class of 1802” and bore the name of the ship that carried it. Seemingly, this bottle was carried on Constitution from Madeira and ended up with the Saltonstalls due to their connection to the Harvard Class of 1802.

Did this bottle of wine sail on Constitution? The glass bottle, itself, was first investigated to determine the date it was produced. Consulting with glass bottle experts at the Society of Historical Archaeology¹ confirmed that the bottle dates between mid-1830s to 1840s based on the bottle’s physical attributes and inscription on the base of the bottle.

 

According to the ship’s logs, Constitution visited Madeira from June 29, 1838, to July 5, 1838, and again from June 23, 1844, to June 29, 1844. However, there is a lack of evidence to support that this bottle was acquired by the crews of Constitution during those times. Additionally, it is possible the “Constitution Class of 1802” seal was added at any point after the bottle was created. If this bottle didn’t sail on Constitution, then what is its connection to “Old Ironsides”?

The breakthrough comes from a 1902 book, where the author states that a wine called Constitution, was designated as the Harvard class wine and bottles were embossed with a “Constitution Class of 1802” seal:

The Madeira Wine Guide created by Dr. Wolf Peter Reutter confirms that Constitution was the name of the 1802 Madeira vintage, which was named after the ship Constitution:

“The legendary frigate Constitution, the oldest ship in the world that is still afloat, was also baptized with Madeira wine. Together with its special sandwich live oak planking construction this Madeira wine treatment might have contributed to the invulnerability of ‘Old Ironsides.’ As a remembrance of this event, the Madeira vintage of 1802 has been named Constitution as well.”

After uncovering that Constitution is the name of the wine, it was possible to find repeated references to Constitution Madeira on contemporary wine lists and other newspaper excerpts from the mid-to-late 1800s:

What about the 1886 Boston Evening Transcript excerpt that claimed the Class of 1802 bottles of wine sailed on Constitution? The excerpt appears in a section of the newspaper entitled “Notes and Queries,” which is not a fact-checked section. The author of that particular note is someone with the initials G.W.P., and no one from the Harvard Class of 1802 bears those initials. So, G.W.P. was a relative outsider to these dinners. The author of the note mentions that he signed for the wines (“and they were in my care’’) but does not disclose his exact connection to these dinners. He mentions his previous employment as a manager at the Revere House (Bowdoin Square, Boston) in 1849, and he may have occupied a similar position at the Maverick House. So this excerpt was written by someone who knew about wines, but may have been relying on second-hand information about the source of the wines.

Reexamining the wording in the Boston Evening Transcript note, it becomes clear that G.W.P. misinterpreted the meaning behind “Constitution” on the wine bottles. From his description, it is clear he saw the bottles first-hand. However, his use of “likely” and “some,” shows a degree of uncertainty in his description of how these wines ended up in Boston:

“The wines were named from the ships in which the ‘pipes and casks’ of wine were brought home; very likely the Constitution was brought home by some officers of the navy as private stores.”

The first part of this sentence is important because it is correct about the Constitution wine: the wine was named after the ship, but not because the ship carried the wine. From finding the additional context, it is clear that while this particular bottle never sailed on Constitution, it bears a connection to the ship.

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_{1. Bill Lindsey, Bill Lockhart, Bob Brown, and Carol Serr based on: Bill Lockhart, Bill Lindsey, Beau Schriever, and Carol Serr, “The Ricketts Family Glass Firms,” Society for Historical Archaeology, 2019, https://sha.org/bottle/pdffiles/RickettsFirms.pdf.}

The Author(s)

Kelli Aquino
Curatorial Assistant, USS Constitution Museum

Kelli Aquino is Curatorial Assistant at the USS Constitution Museum.