The Rural Record is a handwritten journal of School events kept by various SPS Faculty members from 1857 to the early twentieth century. An indispensable source for the School’s early years, the Rural Record was kept in turn by Francis Chase from 1857 to 1862, John T. Wheeler to 1872, Hall Harrison (the School’s first Librarian) to 1874, and Augustus M. Swift to 1879. A gap of nine years occurs, then the entries are carried on by various hands until 1890, and then by J. M. Lamberton and Willard Scudder.

The entries in the Rural Record range from descriptions of the weather (the temperature being recorded faithfully three times a day) and daily life at the School to events of national significance. In recent years, the folio volumes of the Rural Record were sent to the New England Document Conservation Center in Andover, Mass. for deacidification treatment, intended to prolong the life of the handwritten journals.