Account book of Andrew Croswell, 1794-1802

Andrew Croswell kept this account book while an undergraduate at Harvard College. It contains entries from 1794, the year he entered, until his graduation in 1798. There is also one entry on the back cover apparently made in 1802. The entries, divided by school term, are very detailed. Croswell indicates the cost of the following, among many other expenses and purchases: transportation, most often to Hingham and Plymouth; payment for "passing the bridge"; candles; hiring a horse; wood and having it cut; laundry; quills and pencils; paper and ink; razors, haircuts, hair ribbons; a trunk; clothing and cloth for trousers; furniture; tickets to the theater; door locks; a bowl and spoon; "batts and balls" and "other necessaries"; tobacco; toothbrushes; shoe and boot repair; fruit; wine, brandy and rum; cheese; coffee and tea; butter; lemons; sugar; and wafers. There are also entries for college-related costs, including the payment of quarter bills, buttery bills, Hasty Pudding Club dues, and a fee to the President of Harvard College related to Croswell's graduation. There are also entries pertaining to the cost of celebrating various special occasions, including Election Day, Christmas Eve, "Independent Day," and George Washington's birthday.

Gift of M.B. James, September 1932.

Title supplied by cataloguer.

The Harvard University Archives also holds a watercolor painting, "A View of Harvard College," that Croswell created in 1796, when he was a sophomore (HUV 2196).

Andrew Croswell was born in Plymouth, Massachusetts on April 9, 1778 to Andrew and Sarah (Palmer) Croswell. He received an A.B. from Harvard College in 1798 and then studied medicine under Dr. Zaccheus Bartlett. He later moved to Maine, where he was a practicing physician in the towns of Fayette and Mercer for over fifty years. He married Susan Church of Farmington, Maine, and they had six children together. Andrew Croswell died in Mercer, Maine on June 4, 1858, at the age of eighty.