I don't keep an eye on ebay quite as much as I should, but a few weeks ago, a friend mentioned an item he had seen on ebay that had a Wofford connection. I looked at it and decided it was definitely something we wanted for the collection.
Of course, you all know how ebay works. You bid on an item and the highest bidder wins. I did end up in a slight bidding war for this document, but ultimately, I won. Fortunately, the bidding never got too extreme or I would have given up. (I haven't put in to be reimbursed for the purchase yet.)
This is from an 1871 Preston Literary Society Annual Celebration. The Preston was the younger of the two societies, founded around 1858. The societies, as I've written before, were debating and speaking clubs. The event described in this program would have been one of the highlights of the society's year. I think General Preston was probably a relative of the society's namesake, Senator William C. Preston, and in this case, the "president" was literally the one who presided over the featured debate. The diplomas conferred after the debate would have been the ones granted by the society to its senior members, not the ones granted by the college to those who had earned a degree.
