A collection of the most approved pieces of music from various authors: transcribed while member of Harvard University, from July 1789 to July 1793

John Pierce kept this journal while he was a student at Harvard College. It consists of manuscript musical scores with annotations indicating the occasions at which the music was performed. These occasions included commencements, public exhibitions and Dudleian lectures. A note indicates that one anthem was prepared by Samuel Holyoke at Pierce's request, to be performed at Pierce's class commencement exercises, held on July 13, 1793. Several annotations were made in May 1794, the year following Pierce's graduation. There is a table of contents on the last page.

Student notebook of Samuel Dunbar, 1721-1722

This leather-bound volume contains substantial transcriptions copied by Samuel Dunbar from textbooks while he was a student at Harvard in 1721 and 1722. There is a general index to texts at the end of the volume. Dunbar's notebook provides a window into the state of higher education in the eighteenth century and offers a firsthand account of academic life at Harvard College. Notably, he often indicated the number of days spent copying texts into his book.

Diary and commonplace book of Peres Fobes, 1759-1760

The diary and commonplace book of Perez Fobes is written on unlined pages in a notebook with a sewn binding at the top of the pages; only the edge of the original leather softcover remain. The volume holds handwritten entries added irregularly from August 23, 1759 until December 1760 while Fobes was a student at Harvard College. The topics range from the irreverent, to the mundane, to the theological and scientific. The notebook serves to chronicle both his daily activities, such as books he read, lectures he attended, and travel, as well as a place to note humorous sayings, transcribe book passages, or ponder religious ideas such as original sin. In the volume, Fobes devotes considerable space to the subject of astronomy, and drew a picture of the "The Solar System Serundum Coper[nici] with the Or[bit] of 5 Remarkable Comets." At the back of the book, on unattached pages is a short personal dictionary for the letters A-K kept by Fobes.

Dominium temporale non fundatur in gratia (Commencement Quaestiones), 1697 July 7

Small paper notebook of John Ballantine with the handwritten Latin quaestiones performed by Ballantine, Eliphalet Adams, Adam Winthrop, and Jabez Fitch as candidates for the Master’s degree during the July 7, 1697 Harvard Commencement ceremony. The Quaestiones begin with Ballantine’s “Dominum temporal non fundatur in gratia,” and follow with “An Jesuitae possint esse boni subditi? Neg Resp. Dom. Winthrop,” "An Ethnicae virtutes sint verae virtutes?" Neg. Resp. Dom. Adams,” and “An detur omnibus an sufficiens ad salutem? Neg. Resp. Dom. Fitch.” The title page bears the inscription: “Jno Ballantine’s Book” and the first page has been torn out.

Student notebook of John Tufts, 1705

Small vellum-covered notebook containing handwritten transcriptions copied by Harvard undergraduate John Tufts from two Harvard textbooks. The notebook is divided into two sections with the first, numbered 1-100, containing an English transcription of "Compendium of Logick" compiled by William Brattle, and the second, numbered 1-66, containing an untitled Latin transcription of Charles Morton's "Compendium Physicae." The flyleaf is inscribed "John Tufts His Book 1705."