Theses, in Comitiis publicis Harvardini Collegii quod est Cantabrigiae Nov-Anglorum, defensae & pro viribus propugnatae a Juvenibus in Artibus initiatis, [1660-1753]

The bound volume holds handwritten transcriptions of selected Harvard Commencement Theses copied by Isaac Mansfield (Harvard AB 1742). The manuscript volume holds only the Theses chosen for public disputation. The volume includes Theses transcriptions for which no original broadsides are known to still exists.

New York, N.Y. and vicinity, 1777 (Raster Image)

This layer is a georeferenced raster image of the historic paper map entitled: The country twenty five miles round New York, drawn by a gentleman from that city ; J. Barber, sculp., Holborn Hill. It was published by ... W. Hawkes (successor to T. Kitchin), No. 59, Holborn Hill, 1st January, 1777. Scale [ca. 1:220,000]. Covers the Metropolitan New York region. The image inside the map neatline is georeferenced to the surface of the earth and fit to the Universal Transverse Mercator (UTM) Zone 18N NAD83 projection. All map collar and inset information is also available as part of the raster image, including any inset maps, profiles, statistical tables, directories, text, illustrations, index maps, legends, or other information associated with the principal map. This map shows features such as roads, drainage, cities and towns, battle sites, fortifications, points of military interests, and more. Relief is shown pictorially. Shows radial distances from New York. Includes notes on military battles, "Chronological table of the most interesting occurrences since the commencement of hostilities in North America," distance table, and statistics of population and troops in lower margin. This layer is part of a selection of digitally scanned and georeferenced historic maps from The Harvard Map Collection as part of the Imaging the Urban Environment project. Maps selected for this project represent major urban areas and cities of the world, at various time periods. These maps typically portray both natural and manmade features at a large scale. The selection represents a range of regions, originators, ground condition dates, scales, and purposes.

Northern Manhattan, New York, N.Y., 1777 (Raster Image)

This layer is a georeferenced raster image of the historic paper map entitled: A topographical map of the northn. part of New York Island : exhibiting the plan of Fort Washington, now Fort Knyphausen, with the rebels lines to the southward, which were forced by the troops under the command of the Rt. Honble. Earl Percy on the 16th. Novr. 1776, and survey'd immediately after by order of His Lordship, by Claude Joseph Sauthier, to which is added the attack made to the northd. by the Hessians ; survey'd by order of Lieutt. Genl. Knyphausen. It was published by Wm. Faden in 1777. Scale [ca. 1:20,000]. Covers Manhattan north of 92nd St. and a portion of the Bronx. The image inside the map neatline is georeferenced to the surface of the earth and fit to the Universal Transverse Mercator (UTM) Zone 18N NAD83 projection. All map collar and inset information is also available as part of the raster image, including any inset maps, profiles, statistical tables, directories, text, illustrations, index maps, legends, or other information associated with the principal map. This map shows features such as topography, ground cover, roads, drainage, forts, battery, redoubts, barracks, troop and battle locations, and other defenses, landings, bridges, and more. Relief is shown by hachures. Includes index to military points of interest. This layer is part of a selection of digitally scanned and georeferenced historic maps from The Harvard Map Collection as part of the Imaging the Urban Environment project. Maps selected for this project represent major urban areas and cities of the world, at various time periods. These maps typically portray both natural and manmade features at a large scale. The selection represents a range of regions, originators, ground condition dates, scales, and purposes.

Boston, Massachusetts and vicinity, showing Revolutionary War fortification sites, 1788 (Raster Image)

This layer is a georeferenced raster image of the historic paper map entitled: Boston with its environs, [by] T. Conder, sculpt. The map was originally published in: William Gordon's The history of the rise, progress, and establishment, of the independence of the United States of America, 1788. Scale [ca. 1:53,360]. The image inside the map neatline is georeferenced to the surface of the earth and fit to the Massachusetts State Plane Coordinate System, Mainland Zone (in Feet) (Fipszone 2001). All map collar and inset information is also available as part of the raster image, including any inset maps, profiles, statistical tables, directories, text, illustrations, or other information associated with the principal map. This map shows Revolutionary War features such as positions of troops, redoubts, batteries, and forts, etc. It also shows features such as roads, drainage, selected public buildings and residences, and more. Relief is shown by hachures. This layer is part of a selection of digitally scanned and georeferenced historic maps of Massachusetts from the Harvard Map Collection. These maps typically portray both natural and manmade features. The selection represents a range of regions, originators, ground condition dates (1755-1922), scales, and purposes. The digitized selection includes maps of: the state, Massachusetts counties, town surveys, coastal features, real property, parks, cemeteries, railroads, roads, public works projects, etc.

Letter from David Phips to Colonel Jonathan Snelling regarding escort of Governor Hutchinson to Harvard Commencement, 1773 July 12

David Phips wrote this letter to Colonel Jonathan Snelling from Cambridge on July 12, 1773, to inform him that Massachusetts Governor Thomas Hutchinson had requested the accompaniment of guards during his travels from Milton to Cambridge on July 21, 1773, to attend the Harvard College Commencement exercises. In the letter, Phips informs Snelling that he has issued warrants to the guards, instructing them to congregate at the Sign of the Grey Hound in Roxbury, Massachusetts at eight o'clock on the morning of the 21st. He explains that twelve other men will march, under the command of Sub-Brigadier Sumner, to the Governor's home in Milton to escort him to Roxbury, where the larger party will assemble. These heightened security measures were certainly prompted by political unrest, although this is not stated explicitly in the letter. Phips concludes by saying: "I shall order a dinner for us at Bradish's, where I hope to have the pleasure to dine with you."

Orderly book : manuscript, 1775-1776

Orderly book kept by Fogg, the Adjutant for Colonel Enoch Poor's 2d New Hampshire Regiment on Winter Hill, during the siege of Boston, Aug. 23, 1775-Jan. 6, 1776.

Receipt book of Francis Kittredge, 1780

Contains instructions for preparing and administering medicine for adults and children, and generalized uses for certain ingredients, written by Dr. Francis Kittredge. Preparations include ointment for scurvy, bone ointment, nerve ointments, procedures to soothe a sore mouth and to stop excessive bleeding, and treatment to kill worms. The materials used to prepare bone ointment include fresh butter, hog fat, chamomile, garlic, and night shade, among other ingredients. The recipe for “simple nerve ointment” instructs the preparer to simmer half a pint of neet foot oil, a pint of rum, and one jell of oil of turpentine over a “gentle fire.” Kittredge writes that oil of St. John’s Wort is effective in treating swelling of the legs, for cold and aches, and for burning and scalds, while oil of Elderflower is indicated for belly aches. The manuscript is housed in a binding created by the Harvard Medical School library. Tipped into the binding is one letter from Frederick O. West, M.D., Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, that accompanied his donation of the Kittredge receipt book to the library in 1919. There is also one letter of unknown provenance enclosed with the receipt book, which contains an inventory of the estate of Antipas Brigham, of Grafton, Massachusetts, signed by Worcester County Judge Joseph Wilder on 7 November 1749. It is unclear if this letter has any connection to Frederick O. West or Francis Kittredge.

Vote of thanks and $100 for repairs of Massachusetts Hall, 15 December 1812

In this letter signed by President John Kirkland, the Corporation voted to honor Loammi Baldwin for his supervision of the repairs to Massachusetts Hall. Repairs included new doors, doorframes, and windows. These updates were likely delayed repairs of damage sustained during the American Revolution when American soldiers were quartered in Massachusetts Hall.

Lists of books granted to Harvard by the Massachusetts General Court, ca. 1778

The books listed were sequestered from "Cox & Berry's Collection" (British booksellers Cox and Berry) and from Province House, home to the royal Governors of the Massachusetts Bay Colony prior to the American Revolution. To the left of each book's title is a number indicating how many copies of that title were received.

Manuscript copy of the book of Harvard, 1767

The pamphlet-sized manuscript includes "The Book of Harvard" signed "Joseph Cummings, scriptis, Janr 7th 1767," an untitled two-page essay beginning, "Wisdom is ye Crown of life" and ending "Draught of Knowledge, let us with a laudable ambition, strive to excel each other in an ardent pursuit of Learning, then shall we raise to ourselves a monument of honest fame, which shall perish only in ye general wreak of nature," and on the last page, "An Accrostick" beginning "Jangling & Discord are thy Souls delight" and spelling out JAMES MITCHEL VARNUM dated July 3, 1767 and signed "The 3d edition revised & improved by Gove & Fogg."

John Winthrop's proposal respecting electrical globes and jars, ca. 1758

In this proposal, John Winthrop explains the need to replace damaged "electric globes" used in the College's collection of scientific apparatus. He states that Benjamin Franklin, at the time residing in London, was willing to seek replacement globes for the College's collection. Winthrop then proceeds to assert that the College should acquire "square bottles, of a moderate size, fitted in a wooden box, like what they call case bottles for spirits" instead of the large jars included in the scientific apparatus, because those jars cracked frequently.

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.

Letters from Delia Jarvis Tudor to her son, William Tudor,

Four letters written from Gardiner, Maine. In one she expresses her grief following the death of her husband, and other letters offer her recollections of his role in the American Revolution.

Letters from Delia Jarvis Tudor to her son, William Tudor,

Five letters sent from Gardiner, Maine, Boston, and New York. In several, there are messages included from Emma and Robert Hallowell Gardiner. One letter includes anectdotes regarding the late William Tudor and the American Revolution. One letter written to Tudor while he was chargé d’affairs in Rio de Janeiro relates news that his brother, Henry James (Harry), was setting up a salt-making business; it also includes a message from Delia, anticipating his return to the United States. Two additional undated letters, addressed to Tudor in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, likely before Tudor’s father died in 1819, contain family news and local gossip.

James Otis research materials,

Includes copies of correspondence from James Otis, notes on the American Revolution, and an extract from the Journal of Congress, approximately 1760s-1780s.