A plan of Cambridge Green, 1780 September 14

Small pen-and-ink and watercolor drawing of Cambridge Green created by Harvard senior John Davis, presumably as part of his undergraduate mathematical coursework. The map surveys Cambridge Commons and includes a few rough outlines of College buildings and the Episcopal church, and notes the burying ground, and the roads to Charlestown, Menotomy, the pond, Watertown, and the bridge. The original handwritten text is faded and was annotated with additional text by Davis including the note "[taken in my Senior year at H. College Septr 1780] Surveyed in concert with classmates, Atkins, Hall 1st, Howard, Payne, &c.- J. Davis." There is a note that "Atkins afterwards took the name of Tying." Davis refers to Dudley Atkins Tyng, Joseph Hall, Bezaleel Howard, and Elijah Paine, all members of the Harvard Class of 1781.

Title transcribed from item. This item was originally part of the College Land maps collection (UAI 15.740).

The John Davis Commencement poem collection (HUC 6781.16) is also available in the Harvard University Archives.

Similar land surveys of Harvard and Cambridge are available in the Mathematical Theses (HUC 8782.514) in the Harvard University Archives.

John Davis (1761-1847), a United States Court judge for the district of Massachusetts, was born on January 25, 1761 in Plymouth, Mass. He received an AB from Harvard in 1781 and an AM in 1784. Davis practiced law and served in state government before being appointed comptroller of the United States Treasury in 1796. In 1801, he began a forty-year tenure as a United States Court Judge for the district of Massachusetts. Davis was a Fellow of Harvard College from 1803 to 1810 and served as College Treasurer from 1810 to 1827. He also served as President of the Massachusetts Historical Society from 1818 to 1843. Davis died on January 14, 1847.