Letter from James Winthrop to William Bentley, 1799 November 25

Two folio-sized leaves containing a one-and-a-half-page handwritten letter from Winthrop to Bentley discussing James Dallaway's Constantinople, Ancient and Modern, and Greek mythology.

Letter from Samuel Willard, Lancaster, Massachusetts to Catherine Willard, Petersham, Massachusetts, June 18, 1799

Willard asks his sister to bring some of his clothes to a tailor, and also to make him a pair of linen gloves, and to send him various items from home, including books, a jacket, and a hat.

Letter from Samuel Willard, Cambridge, Massachusetts, to William Willard, Petersham, Massachusetts, September 6, 1799

This letter written to his father describes his arrival at Harvard, book expenses, and present financial situation; he also asks his father to build him a writing desk. Willard discusses the family of his uncle, Harvard president Joseph Willard, and his uncle’s health and issues with jaundice.

Letter from Samuel Willard, Cambridge, Massachusetts, to Catherine Willard, Petersham, Massachusetts, September 6, 1799

Willard complains about not having received requested items sooner, explains that his aunt gave him some furniture, discusses friends in Lancaster, mentions a blue coat that he would like to have made, and describes the house that he lives in, which was called “the Den or College House.”

Letter from Samuel Willard, Cambridge, Massachusetts, to William Willard, Petersham, Massachusetts, November 22, 1799

Willard details his various expenses for food, wood, tuition, and books, and explains his bill payment schedule. He also mentions President Willard and sends best wishes to his mother, brother, and sister.

Letter from Samuel Willard, Cambridge, Massachusetts, to Catherine Willard, Petersham, Massachusetts, November 22, 1799

Willard discusses tailoring his coat, asks to be sent another towel and a Bible, and describes the latest Harvard fashion: “Deep blue is the Colour most in Vogue in this Place.” He also mentions that the “President and his family are pretty well,” and that he is invited to dine with them about once a fortnight.

Notes on mortgages, fragment, 1837

Fragment of a handwritten list of mortgages.

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.

Justice of the Peace record book, Windham, Vermont, 1799-1807

Contains records of summons and judgements in various kinds of court cases, fees and fines paid, and index of names.

Reports to the Harvard Board of Overseers, 1799-1917

This collection contains the reports of the committee appointed by the Harvard Board of Overseers to visit and inspect the Harvard College Library, dating from 1799 to 1917.

Student lectures notes on chemistry and materia medica, and medical recipes, of Lyman Spalding, 1795-1799 (inclusive)

Contains notes taken by Harvard student Lyman Spalding during eleven chemistry lectures delivered by Harvard Professor Aaron Dexter (1750-1829) in the fall of 1795 and recipes prepared and used by Spalding in his medical practice in 1797. The recipes include elixir vitriol, containing liquor, Jamaica pepper, cinnamon, and ginger, and an electuary for a cough, containing oxymel squills (sea onion in honey), licorice, antimonium tartaricum potash (a compound of the chemical element antimony and a potassium-containing salt), and opium. The volume also contains writings about chemistry by Spalding, some of which appear transcribed from published sources, in undated entries, and a diary entry from 1799 regarding an experiment with water.