Student lecture notes of Benjamin Peirce, 1797-1798

This collection contains approximately twenty-three handwritten lecture summaries on six leaves made by Harvard undergraduate Benjamin Peirce between September 1797 and November 22, 1798. The summaries generally provide a few sentences describing the topic covered and primarily pertain to lectures on English grammar delivered by Eliphalet Pearson, the Hollis Professor of Hebrew and other Oriental Languages. There are also summaries for single lectures by David Tappan, the Hollis Professor Divinity; Samuel Webber, the Hollis Professor of Mathematics and Natural Philosophy; and John Snelling Popkin, the Greek Tutor from 1795 to 1798, and later the Eliot Professor of Greek Literature. There is also an undated summary of a lecture by Benjamin Waterhouse, the Hersey Professor of Theory and Practice of Physic.

Title supplied by cataloger.

Received in the Harvard University Library on March 18, 1954 as the gift of Helen E. Ellis.

Benjamin Peirce (1778-1831), a Harvard historian and librarian, was born on September 30, 1778 in Salem, Mass. He received an AB from Harvard in 1801, and following his graduation participated in his father's shipping business and also served in the Massachusetts State Senate. In 1826, Peirce was appointed Librarian of Harvard, and compiled a Catalogue of the Library of Harvard University which was published in 1830. Peirce's "A History of Harvard University from 1636 to the American Revolution" was published posthumously following his death on July 26, 1831. His son, also named Benjamin Peirce (1809-1880; Harvard AB 1829), was the Perkins Professor Astronomy at Harvard.

The Harvard University Archives also holds the Papers of Benjamin Peirce (HUG 1680.10).