Nathaniel Bowditch receives honorary Master's Degree

Today's blog post is coming to you courtesy of Mass Moments, a program from the Mass Foundation for the Humanities. If you're a history buff, or a Massachusetts enthusiast, I highly recommend signing up for the daily Mass Moment e-mails. They are historical, educational, and often entertaining.

Here is today's moment:

On this day in 1802 Harvard College awarded Nathaniel Bowditch an honorary Master's Degree. The Salem-born astronomer, mathematician, and navigator was almost entirely self-educated. His formal schooling ended when he was ten. While apprenticed to a ship chandler, he taught himself mathematics, astronomy, Latin, Greek, and French. Later, during his years at sea, he began working on The New American Practical Navigator, the first complete and accurate handbook of navigation tables. The Practical Navigator was published in 1802. It is still in print, and in use, over two centuries later. Tradition has it that no sailor left port without a Bible, a chest of clothes, a mother's blessing, and his copy of Bowditch.

Click here for the rest of the story!

You can click here for a printable PDF of the Nathaniel Bowditch Trail in Salem, which is "A walking tour of the great age of Sail."

Mass Humanities' Sources

American National Biography, Vol. 3 (Oxford University Press, 1999).

"Nathaniel Bowditch, Scientist," by Jim McCallister in "Salem Tales."

"Salem's Stellar Scientist: Nathanial Bowditch, An Appreciation," by Mildred Berman, SEXTANT, The Journal of Salem State College, Vol. III, No.1, 1996.