Charles Upham Shepard was born on June 29, 1804, and died on May 1, 1886. He spent one year at Brown University before entering Amherst in 1821. After graduation in 1824 he spent almost a year studying under Professor L. Nuttall and, after giving private lessons in Botany and Mineralogy for a few months in Boston, entered the laboratory of Professor Benjamin Silliman at Yale College where he remained for another two years. From 1830 to 1847 he was Lecturer on Natural History at Yale. While at Yale, in 1832-33, under a commission from the U.S. Government, Shepard investigated plans adopted in the culture of sugarcane and the manufacture of sugar in the southern United States, and incorporated the results of his observations in Professor Silliman's report to the Secretary of the Treasury in 1833. In 1835 he was the associate of Dr. Percival in the State Geological Survey of Connecticut. He was also Professor of Chemistry and Natural History in the Charleston (S.C.) Medical College from 1834 to 1861, and from 1865 to 1869. In 1845 he became Professor of Chemistry and Natural History at Amherst College and retained that position until 1852. From 1852 to 1877 he was Professor of Natural History, and was Emeritus Professor from 1877 until his death in 1886 at Charleston, South Carolina.

This collection of Shepard's papers consists primarily of letters to him during the period 1830-1833 concerning his mineral collecting. There are some papers that he saved concerning the sugar industry as well as a few notebooks he used for Chemistry notes under Professor Silliman, and a bound volume of pamphlets by Shepard. At the end of the collection is a miscellaneous group of various materials such as old newspapers. The collection was the gift of the Pratt Geology Museum, November 1968.

This collection is organized into four series:

• 1. Letters, ca. 1830-1833
• 2. Papers, ca. 1826-1833
• 3. Miscellaneous Materials, ca. 1831-1840
• 4. Bound Manuscripts and Pamphlets, ca. 1833-1881