 On the occasion of the bicentennial of Yale University, a series of publications were to be issued to showcase Yale's role in the advancement of knowledge.Gibbs was authoring "Elementary Principles in Statistical Mechanics" for that series.Mindful of the demand for innovative university textbooks, the editor of the series, Professor Morris, wished to include also a volume dedicated to Gibbs's lectures on vectors, but Gibbs's time and attention were entirely absorbed by the "Statistical Mechanics".