Annotated almanac, 1744

Almanac containing calendar pages with sporadic annotations of unidentified measurements and interleaved pages with short handwritten entries about Winthrop's daily activities, and astronomical and meteorological observations. The entries include personal notes about travel, the weather, occasional alcohol consumption, and deaths in the community including a Latin entry on the death of his eldest brother (December 12).

Meteorologic observations at Cambridge in New England, 1744-1747

Notebook containing handwritten meteorologic observations and calculations made by John Winthrop for the years 1744 (18 pages), 1745 (23 pages), 1746 (15 pages), and 1747 (20 pages). The verso of the last page in the volume contains the note "presented June 16 1748.")

1794, Triennial catalogues annotated by William Winthrop, 1794-1812.

Leather and marbled hardcover binding. Substantially annotated. The volume consists of pages from the published catalogues pasted into a blank volume. The bulk of the volume is comprised of the printed list of graduate names found in the Triennial Catalogue accompanied by handwritten biographical information, usually a sentence in length. It begins with a handwritten section titled "Settled Ministers (in the first Parish in Cambridge)." The entries generally contain a residence, date of death (abbreviated ob), age of death (abbreviated ae), and professional information. While the 1794 Catalogue comprises the majority of the volume, names were added from Triennial Catalogues through the 1812 edition. An example of an entry, for John Hancock (Harvard AB 1754), reads “Rep. for Boston, Maj. Gen. Militia. Ob. Octo. 8. 1793 AE 57 Son of Rev. John of Brantree [sic]." A March 27, 1798 letter to Judge Richard Cranch (1726-1818) from Jeremy Belknap (1744-1798, Harvard AB 1762) pasted into the back of the volume. Written only two months before his death, Belknap describes his plan to "go thro’ the whole Catalogue of the graduates of Harvard College, & relate all that’s proper to be related." Four leaves of biographical notes for the classes of 1642-1686 towards the beginning of the volume are in a different hand with the note "Rev Dr. Holmes's handwriting."

1818, Catalogus senatus academici, eorum qui munera et officia gesserunt, quique alicujus gradus laurea donati sunt in Universitate Harvardiana, Cantabrigiae, in republica Massachusettensi.

Hardcover binding. Includes loose handwritten notes with biographical information. Bound with Catalogus eorum qui adhuc in Universitate Harvardiana ab anno MDCXLII ... gradus laurea donati sunt ..., 1813, a published alphabetical index of Harvard graduates; an additional handwritten, alphabetical index follows with the names of members of the Classes of 1814-1818. A list of "Mem. of those persons who have deceased since the last edition was printed in 1818" includes death dates through 1820.

Interleaved almanac, 1744

The 1744 diary is interleaved in Poor Richard's An almanack for the year of Christ 1744. The thin paper-covered book holds brief notes about Holyoke’s daily life as an undergraduate at Harvard, written on blank pages bound with the almanac. The entries focus on Holyoke’s life as a college student with mention of his professors and daily events. The months of May, July, October, November, and December have no entries. The diary records the outbreak of King George's War: "War with France Proclamed [sic]" (June 2), as well as his new hobby of painting.

Description of a College Chamber (manuscript copy), ca. 1744

This humorous, rhyming poem appears to have been co-authored by Thomas Handcock of Massachusetts and Richard Waterman of Warwick, Rhode Island. The document is also signed by Catharine Waterman. Neither of the authors attended Harvard College, and the circumstances of this poem's creation are not known. The poem suggests that they composed the poem while visiting - uninvited - the room of "honest Bob." The poem describes the contents of this college chamber, including the following items: an oak table with a broken leg; paper, a pen, and sand for writing; books, including "Scotch songs," philosophy, Euclid, a book of prayer, Tillotson, and French romances; pipes and tobacco; mugs; a broken violin; copperplate and mezzotint prints; a cat; clothes; two globes; a pair of bellows; a broom; a chamber pot; a candle in a bottle; tea; cups and saucers; a letter to Chloe, to whom the room's inhabitant apparently owed money; a powder horn; a fishing net; a rusty gun; a battledore; a shuttlecock; a cannister; a pair of shoes; and a coffee mill. The poem references events related to the War of Austrian Succession (1740-1748); British Vice Admiral Edward Vernon's siege of Portobello (in present-day Panama) in 1739; the "Rushian War" (perhaps the Russo-Swedish War of 1741-1743); and the War of Jenkins' Ear (the cat in the college chamber, like British Captain Robert Jenkins, has lost an ear).