Notebook of Obadiah Ayer, 1708-1716

The leather-bound notebook contains academic texts copied by Obadiah Ayer while he was a student at Harvard, and after his graduation in 1710. There is a general index to the included texts at the end of the volume.

Tachygraphy or the Art of swift writing -- Compendium of Logick (by William Brattle) -- Geometria (by -- Enchiridion Metaphisicum (by Henry More), copied in 1812 -- Collegii Leges Harvardini [College Laws in Latin], copied in 1712 -- Magnalia Christi Americana, Book 5, fol. 43. (by Cotton Mather) -- Memorial verses on the Eclesiastical and Civil Calender, By Mr. F. S. -- Synopsis of ye Art of Preaching and Praying -- A Catechism Geographicall Historicall & Chronologicall (by Henry Flynt), copied in 1716-- Poem from Dubartas in his Colonies -- Excerpt from Mather’s Winter Meditations (by Cotton Mather) -- How to Cleanse Pearle (a recipe) -- Index.

Received September 9, 1836 as the gift of the Rev. T. M. Harris, DD. Another academic notebook by Obadiah Ayer is held by the Harvard University Archives (HUC 8707.370).

Title supplied by cataloger.

Obadiah Ayer, a Massachusetts schoolmaster and chaplain, was born in Haverhill, Mass. on May 9, 1689. He received an AB from Harvard in 1710 and an AM in 1713. He was as a schoolmaster in Salem before serving as chaplain of Castle William from 1718 until 1723. Ayer died in 1768.

The undergraduate students of Harvard College followed a structured program of study in the early 1700s. Certain key texts were adopted as textbooks at Harvard, and students often copied them into personal notebooks in place of purchased books. Textbooks created by Harvard Tutors Henry Flynt and William Brattle, Instructor Judah Monis, and Fellow Charles Morton were among the earliest used in the colonies.