A plan of Cambridge Green, 1780 September 14

Small pen-and-ink and watercolor drawing of Cambridge Green created by Harvard senior John Davis, presumably as part of his undergraduate mathematical coursework. The map surveys Cambridge Commons and includes a few rough outlines of College buildings and the Episcopal church, and notes the burying ground, and the roads to Charlestown, Menotomy, the pond, Watertown, and the bridge. The original handwritten text is faded and was annotated with additional text by Davis including the note "[taken in my Senior year at H. College Septr 1780] Surveyed in concert with classmates, Atkins, Hall 1st, Howard, Payne, &c.- J. Davis." There is a note that "Atkins afterwards took the name of Tying." Davis refers to Dudley Atkins Tyng, Joseph Hall, Bezaleel Howard, and Elijah Paine, all members of the Harvard Class of 1781.

Receipt book for legal services, 1798-1810

A receipt book containing fees charged for legal services of John Rowe who practiced in Gloucester, Massachusetts.

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.

Notebook of James Lovell, 1757-1760

Marbled paper-covered handwritten notebook of James Lovell. The volume contains three texts written in Latin, “Praecellentissime Domine,” dated 1757, an untitled text beginning, “Cogitanti mihi et superiorum revolti…” dated 1759, and Lovell’s funeral oration for Tutor Henry Flynt titled “Oratio funebris” dated 1760. The Latin texts are followed by blank pages and the volume ends with an untitled English text about orators that begins, “Ridiculous certainly is that Practice of some...” The last page of the text includes the marginal notes: “John Winthrop Esqr. Hollisian Professor” and, “For T.H. of Carolina.” There are verses attributed to the London Magazine written on the inside front cover.