Notebook of Tristram Gilman, 1757-1761

The small volume holds the notebook of Tristram Gilman interleaved on unlined pages in a printed engagement calendar. The original leather cover accompanies the notebook, but is no longer attached. The inside covers of the original leather binding are filled with scribbled words and notes. The volume holds a variety of handwritten notes including account information, transcriptions of biblical passages and related observations, travel information, community news, weather, and astronomy. The volumes does not follow a chronological order, and instead seems to have been repurposed at various times.

Begun while Gilman was completing his senior year at Harvard in 1757, it includes a list of some of the members of the Class of 1761, but was generally used to copy down facts about astronomy, focused especially on planetary distance and size, and religious questions. After graduation, while working as a teacher, Gilman used the book to record information about his co-educational classroom including student names. It also has some references to his students from his time as a teacher. From 1759-1761, Gilman also used the volume to make accounting calculations pertaining to his family's Exeter saw mill, including the price of lumber and sums received for renting the mill. The notebook also includes occasional references to the Seven Years' War (1756-63), as well as short notes about travel, personal purchases, and daily events.

Title supplied by cataloger.

Received by Harvard College Library from Roger Gilman, Cambridge, December 18, 1941.

Tristram Gilman (1735-1809) was born in Durham, Maine and graduated with an AB from Harvard in 1757. After graduation, he was schoolmaster of the Exeter School. He became minister of North Yarmouth, Maine in 1769 and led a three-year religious revival beginning in 1791. He served as president of the Maine Missionary Society and the first president of the Bowdoin College Board of Trustees. He died on April 1, 1809.