Student mathematical notebook of William Tudor, 1795

Notebook containing the handwritten mathematical exercises of William Tudor, kept in 1795 while he was an undergraduate at Harvard College. The volume contains rules, definitions, problems, drawings, and tables on geometry, trigonometry, surveying, calculating distances, sailing, and dialing. Some of the exercises are illustrated with hand-drawn diagrams. The Menusration of Heights and Distances section contains color drawings of buildings and trees, and some have been altered with notes in different hands and with humorous additions. For instance, a drawing of a tower was drawn into a figure titled “Egyptian Mummy.” Some of the images are identified: “A rude sketch of the Middlesex canal,” Genl Warren’s monument on Bunker Hill,” “Noddles Island,” “the fields of Elysium,” and the “Roxbury Canal.” The annotations and additional drawings are unattributed.

Letters from Benjamin Welles to John Henry Tudor, 1799-1801

Benjamin Welles wrote these six letters to his friend and classmate, John Henry Tudor, between 1799 and 1801. Four of the letters are dated, and the dates of the other two can be deduced from their contents. Welles wrote Tudor four times in September 1799, at the onset of their senior year at Harvard, in an attempt to clear up hurt feelings and false rumors that he believed had caused a chill in their friendship. The cause of the rift is never fully explained, though Welles alludes to "a viper" and "villainous hypocrite" who apparently spread rumors and fueled discord between the two friends. In one letter, Welles asserts that "College is a rascal's Elysium - or the feeling man's hell." In another he writes: "College, Tudor, is a furnace to the phlegmatic, & a Greenland to thee feeling man; it has an atmosphere which breathes contagion to the soul [...] Villains fatten here. College is the embryo of hell." Whatever their discord, the wounds were apparently eventually healed; in a letter written June 26, 1800, Welles writes to ask Tudor about his impending speech at Commencement exercises. In an October 29, 1801 letter, Welles writes to Tudor in Philadelphia (where he appears to have traveled in attempts to recover his failing health) and expresses strong wishes for his friend's recovery and return to Boston. This letter also contains news of their classmate Washington Allston's meeting with painters Henry Fuseli and Benjamin West.

Letters from George W. Slacum to William Tudor,

One letter of professional courtesy and one letter regarding the capture of the American ship Frances.

Letter from Daniel W. Coit to William Tudor,

One letter regarding the ownership of a steam engine, a silver mine in Catajumbo, and prices of goods and foodstuffs.

Letter from J.W. Ellery to William Tudor,

One letter regarding the detention of the ship Panther by the Brazilian government.

Letter from George W. Lewis to William Tudor,

One letter inquiring if Tudor wished to send any letters to Boston with Lewis when he sailed.

Letters from Z.W. Nixon to William Tudor,

Four letters regarding the legal and financial aspects involving the Chanca silver mine and its stakeholders, Tudor, McCall, Maling, and Prevost, and a copy of a letter from Nixon to Prevost. Nixon additionally comments on domestic news, including the renaming of the U.S.S. Susquehanna as the U.S.S. Brandywine by John Quincy Adams in honor of the Marquis de Lafayette. The ship conveyed Lafayette back to France after his tour of the United States. Nixon also mentions Charles Stewart and his court martial.

Letter from William Croswell to a Boston bookstore owner, 1830 October 31

Draft of a letter regarding the Harvard Triennial Catalogue.