An abridgment of what I extracted while an undergraduate at Harvard College, 1766-1769

The bound volume contains excerpts copied by Benjamin Wadsworth from books he read as a student at Harvard in the late 1760s. The volume includes almost no personal commentary on the readings. The excerpts are arranged by year of study for the academic years 1766-1769, beginning when Wadsworth was a sophomore. Each entry begins with a title indicating the book title and author for the passage, and there is an alphabetical index at the end of the volume. Wadsworth selected “extracts” from both religious and secular texts including several histories of England, American histories (with a focus on Puritans), the Bible, and in his senior year, “the Koran of Mohammed.” He also read several books on the art of speech and the art of preaching. There are few science texts included, though the final five-page entry is titled, “What I thought fit to note down from Mr. Winthrop’s experimental Lectures” and contains notes both on the content of Professor John Winthrop’s lectures as well as the types of experiments being performed in class. Wadsworth’s commonplace book offers a window on the state of higher education in the eighteenth century and offers a firsthand account of academic life at Harvard College.

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.

Letter from Edward Holyoke to his child, 1766, January 18

One-page handwritten letter from Harvard President Edward Holyoke (1689-1769) requesting that the letter's unidentified recipient locate a book on academic costume previously mentioned by "Secry Oliver," referring to the Secretary of the Province of Massachusetts Bay, Andrew Oliver (1706-1774; Harvard AB 1724). In the letter, Holyoke explained that College alumni wished to give him a gown, and he wanted to determine the appropriate design for the head of a college. The recipient of the letter is identified only as "My dear Child" from "Yo'r Affect. Father, E. Holyoke." The letter also includes the note, "Give my love to my Dau'ter."

Oratio salutatoria in comitiis academicis habita Cantabrigiae Nov-Anglorum. Iulii nonarum, 1697

This hardcover modern binding contains a twenty-page manuscript copy of the salutatory address given by Elisha Cooke at the 1697 Harvard College Commencement. The text includes edits and struck-through words. A one-page copy of the first page of the oration signed by Thomas Banister and William Phips is at the end of the volume.

Student notebook of John Tufts, 1705

Small vellum-covered notebook containing handwritten transcriptions copied by Harvard undergraduate John Tufts from two Harvard textbooks. The notebook is divided into two sections with the first, numbered 1-100, containing an English transcription of "Compendium of Logick" compiled by William Brattle, and the second, numbered 1-66, containing an untitled Latin transcription of Charles Morton's "Compendium Physicae." The flyleaf is inscribed "John Tufts His Book 1705."

Student mathematical notebook of Ephraim Eliot, 1779

Handwritten mathematical notebook of Ephraim Eliot, kept in 1779 while he was a student at Harvard College. The volume contains rules, definitions, problems, drawings, and tables on arithmetic, geometry, trigonometry, surveying, calculating distances, and dialing. Some of the exercises are illustrated by unrefined hand-drawn diagrams, as well as a sketch of a mariner’s compass. The sections on navigation, mensuration of heights, and spherical geometry are titled but not completed. The ink of the later text, beginning with Trigonometry, is faded.

Greek translations by Benjamin Wadsworth, 1766

Two-page handwritten Greek translations created by Harvard sophomore Benjamin Wadsworth on folio-sized paper. The document contains Greek translations of two letters from J. Garretson's "English exercises for school-boys to translate into Latin," copied by Wadsworth in 1766. The first page contains two sections: "As it is in English. A Letter from one friend to another," containing a copy of Garretson's Epistle IV from "E.C.," and a Greek translation of the letter beginning "Kypie..." The second page contains a Greek translation of Garretson's Epistle III from "B.J," and a note by Wadsworth: "A Letter from one Brother to another. Taken out of Garetson's English Exercise. The 3rd Exercise. or 135st page. There is not room or I would write down the English out of which I translated it. September the 2d A.D. 1766. When I was a sophomore." The document is bordered with hand-drawn double lines.

Revolutionary lyrics manuscript, [17--]

Satires written against the organizers of the American Revolution.

Commission of Noah Cooke, Jr., as chaplain in the Continental Army, signed by John Hancock, 1776 January 1

Commission of Noah Cooke, Jr., as chaplain in the Continental Army, signed by John Hancock, 1 January 1776.

Sermons : manuscript, 1717-1719

Autograph manuscript, signed.

Berlin, Germany, 1739 (Raster Image)

This layer is a georeferenced raster image of the historic paper map entitled: Die. Königl. Preus. u. Churf. Brandenburg Residenz-Stadt Berlin = Regiae Borvss & Elector Brandenb. sedis Berolini, entworfen von Johann fridrich Waltern zu Berlin 1737 u. nach dem grossen original in diesen kleinen form gebracht u. heraussgegeben von Homann Erben = ichnographia ex prototypo Walteriano majori Berolini edito in hanc minorem formam reducta et excusa per Homanianos Heredes. It was published by Homann Eben in [1739]. Scale [ca. 1:8,710]. Covers a portion of Berlin, Germany. The image inside the map neatline is georeferenced to the surface of the earth and fit to the Deutsches Hauptdreiecksnetz (DHDN) 3-degree Gauss-Kruger Zone 4 coordinate system. 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, buildings, churches, ground cover, and more. Includes indices and view. 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.

al- ʻAḍb al-Yamānī fī al-radd ʻan Shaykhinā Sīdī Aḥmad al-Tijānī

li-Abī al-ʻAbbās Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad ibn ʻAbd Allāh ibn Muḥammad ibn al-Qāḍī al-ʻAlawī nasaban al-Tijānī ṭarīqan al-Shinjīṭī ; bi-taṣḥīḥ Abī ʻAbd Allāh Muḥammad Jannūn.

Kitāb al-Jaysh al-kafīl bi-akhdh al-thaʼr mimman salla ʻalá al-Shaykh al-Tijānī sayf al-inkār

taʼlīf Muḥammad ibn Muḥammad al-Ṣaghīr al-Shinjīṭī al-Tashītī ; bi-taṣḥīḥ wa-muqābalat Abī ʻAbd Allāh Muḥammad Gannūn.

Risālat Bulūgh al-amānī fī manāqib al-Shaykh Sīdī Aḥmad al-Tijānī

Aḥmad Adīb al-Makkī.

Panjāh bāb-i sulṭānī : manuscript, undated

According to the colophon (f. 76r), written on 5 Shawwāl 860 AH [September 5, 1456 AD]. There is a note in a later hand that says, "Hādhā al-kitāb bi-khaṭṭ al-muʼallif" (f. 75r).