Commonplace book of Nathaniel Freeman, 1786-1787

Nathaniel Freeman made entries in this commonplace book between 1786 and 1787, while he was an undergraduate at Harvard College. The book includes the notes Freeman took during three of Hollis Professor Samuel Williams' "Course of Experimental Lectures," and cover Williams' lectures on "The Nature & Properties of Matter," "Attraction & Repulsion," and "The Nature, Kind, & Affections [?] of Motion." These notes also include one diagram. The book also includes forensic compositions on the subjects of capital punishment, the probability of "the immortality of the soul," and "whether there be any disinterested benevolence." It also includes a poem Freeman composed for his uncle, Edmund Freeman; an anecdote about Philojocus and Gripus; an essay called "Character"; a draft of a letter to the Harvard Corporation requesting that, in light of the public debt, the Commencement ceremonies be held privately to lower expenses and exhibit the merits of economy; and an "epistle" to his father, requesting money. This epistle begins: "Most honored sire, / Thy son, poor Nat, in humble strains, / Impell'd by want, thy generous bounty claims."

An elegie on the deplored decease of that truly pious and religious matron, Mrs. Sara Leveret: relict of the late hon[or]able John Leveret, Esq., sometime governor of his then Majesty's colony of the Massethusets [sic] Bay in New England : manuscript, 1704

Autograph copy, signed.

A proof of Jesus Christ's being the ancient promised Messiah: a sermon preached in the Chapel of Harvard College at Cambridge in New England, June 23, 1756

The hand-sewn notebook contains a 24-page manuscript draft of the second Dudleian lecture, delivered by John Barnard on June 23, 1756. The copy includes a small number of edits and struck-out words adopted in the printed version published by J. Draper of Boston in 1756. The sermon begins with the Biblical text Mark 14:61, 62. The covers are no longer with the item.

Popery a complex falsehood: or an attempt to clear and evidence, that it is so, in a lecture had at Harvard College in Cambridge, New England, on May 10th, 1769

The hand-sewn notebook contains a 30-page manuscript draft of the Dudleian lecture delivered by Samuel Mather on May 10, 1769 at Harvard College. The sermon begins with the Biblical text 2 Thess. 11:11, 12. The copy includes a small number of edits and struck-out words. The item has unattached pages and is in fragile condition. The lecture was never published.

Diary of Elias Mann, 1796-1800

Elias Mann kept this diary during his undergraduate years at Harvard College. The diary begins August 17, 1796 and ends in August of 1800 and also includes several undated sheets filled with excerpts of poems. The daily entries describe many aspects of Mann's life, including not only his experiences at Harvard but also his involvement in the larger community. Entries related to life at Harvard describe club meetings (coffee club, Hasty Pudding Club and Phi Beta Kappa); trips to the theater; dinners at taverns; games and recreation, including a card game called "Loo," cribbage, backgammon, bowling, playing ball, fishing, skating and going for sleigh rides; gathering, and sometimes taking from others' gardens, food (most often plums, peaches, nuts and apples); what he ate (including one breakfast of three raw eggs and two glasses of wine); what he read (including Tristram Shandy and one of "Mrs. Ratcliffe's novels"); his friends, often mentioned by name; and academic work and formalities. In one entry he mentions the theft of several possessions from his room, and there are several entries about trips to Fresh Pond.

Collection of Harvard College bills sent to George Wingate, 1792-1796

This collection of bills, sent to George Wingate while he was an undergraduate at Harvard College from 1792 to 1796, includes quarter bills, butler's bills, and bills and receipts of payment from two women, Mary Hilliard and Mary Kidder, who provided Wingate room and board ("board and chamber"). The butlers bills were created by the two men who held that position during Wingate's time as a student, John Pipon and Timothy Alden. Caleb Gannett was the steward the entire time, and thus creator of all the quarter bills. Some of the bills indicate charges for sizings and fines for punishments, and a bill from Mary Hilliard indicates that Wingate purchased candles, blank books and sheets of paper from her.

Diary of Henry Flynt, 1723-1747

This diary, effectively a commonplace book, documents Flynt's daily activities and personal reflections from 1723 to 1747. Many entries concern his dealings with family members, business associates, acquaintances, ministers, and political officials. The diary includes a list of books Flynt loaned to others from 1723 to 1743 and detailed financial entries from 1724 to 1747. These entries provide information about the costs of goods and services, as well as Flynt's consumption habits; they detail where he traveled, what he ate and drank (including, apparently, many pounds of almonds), what he read, and many other aspects of daily life. The diary also contains entries related to Flynt's land holdings and other investments, as well as copies of meeting minutes from several sessions of the Harvard Board of Overseers.

Hillsborough County, New Hampshire, 1858 (Image 1 of 4) (Raster Image)

This layer is a georeferenced raster image of the historic paper map entitled: Map of Hillsboro Co., New Hampshire, from actual surveys by J. Chace, Jr. It was published by Smith, Mason & Co. in 1858. Scale [ca. 1:53,000]. This layer is image 1 of 4 total images, representing the northwest portion of the four sheet source map. The image inside the map neatline is georeferenced to the surface of the earth and fit to the New Hampshire State Plane coordinate system (NAD 1983 in Feet) (Fipszone 2800). 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, railroads, drainage, public buildings, schools, churches, cemeteries, industry locations (e.g. mills, factories, mines, etc.), private buildings with names of property owners, town and school district boundaries, and more. Relief shown by hachures. Includes table of distances, agricultural goods, religious affiliations, business directory, statistics of education and other information, and a list of county officers.This layer is part of a selection of digitally scanned and georeferenced historic maps of New England 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, scales, and map purposes.

Hillsborough County, New Hampshire, 1858 (Image 2 of 4) (Raster Image)

This layer is a georeferenced raster image of the historic paper map entitled: Map of Hillsboro Co., New Hampshire, from actual surveys by J. Chace, Jr. It was published by Smith, Mason & Co. in 1858. Scale [ca. 1:53,000]. This layer is image 2 of 4 total images, representing the southwest portion of the four sheet source map. The image inside the map neatline is georeferenced to the surface of the earth and fit to the New Hampshire State Plane coordinate system (NAD 1983 in Feet) (Fipszone 2800). 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, railroads, drainage, public buildings, schools, churches, cemeteries, industry locations (e.g. mills, factories, mines, etc.), private buildings with names of property owners, town and school district boundaries, and more. Relief shown by hachures. Includes table of distances, agricultural goods, religious affiliations, business directory, statistics of education and other information, and a list of county officers.This layer is part of a selection of digitally scanned and georeferenced historic maps of New England 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, scales, and map purposes.

Hillsborough County, New Hampshire, 1858 (Image 3 of 4) (Raster Image)

This layer is a georeferenced raster image of the historic paper map entitled: Map of Hillsboro Co., New Hampshire, from actual surveys by J. Chace, Jr. It was published by Smith, Mason & Co. in 1858. Scale [ca. 1:53,000]. This layer is image 3 of 4 total images, representing the southeast portion of the four sheet source map. The image inside the map neatline is georeferenced to the surface of the earth and fit to the New Hampshire State Plane coordinate system (NAD 1983 in Feet) (Fipszone 2800). 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, railroads, drainage, public buildings, schools, churches, cemeteries, industry locations (e.g. mills, factories, mines, etc.), private buildings with names of property owners, town and school district boundaries, and more. Relief shown by hachures. Includes table of distances, agricultural goods, religious affiliations, business directory, statistics of education and other information, and a list of county officers.This layer is part of a selection of digitally scanned and georeferenced historic maps of New England 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, scales, and map purposes.

Hillsborough County, New Hampshire, 1858 (Image 4 of 4) (Raster Image)

This layer is a georeferenced raster image of the historic paper map entitled: Map of Hillsboro Co., New Hampshire, from actual surveys by J. Chace, Jr. It was published by Smith, Mason & Co. in 1858. Scale [ca. 1:53,000]. This layer is image 4 of 4 total images, representing the northeast portion of the four sheet source map. The image inside the map neatline is georeferenced to the surface of the earth and fit to the New Hampshire State Plane coordinate system (NAD 1983 in Feet) (Fipszone 2800). 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, railroads, drainage, public buildings, schools, churches, cemeteries, industry locations (e.g. mills, factories, mines, etc.), private buildings with names of property owners, town and school district boundaries, and more. Relief shown by hachures. Includes table of distances, agricultural goods, religious affiliations, business directory, statistics of education and other information, and a list of county officers.This layer is part of a selection of digitally scanned and georeferenced historic maps of New England 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, scales, and map purposes.

An account of my quarter bills, charges &c from July 11th 1743 to July 13th 1748 at Harvard College

Handwritten account book kept while Storer was a student at Harvard College. The well-organized volume is arranged by expense type and then date and was updated periodically, usually quarterly. The information offers a glimpse at the expenses of a Harvard student and provides information about the larger community that supported student life. The precise entries indicate the lifelong habits of Storer as a careful and methodical financial manager that would prove so valuable when he served as Harvard's treasurer more than thirty years later. Storer documents accounts with the steward, butler, sweeper, glazier, barber, and lists these individuals by name. The volume also includes notes on expenses for boarding, transportation, wood, and pocket expenses. While most entries do not list specific purchases, Storer provides details on the cost of a Harvard Commencement in 1747 (including the cost of a diploma, money to the President, hiring a house, a boat, a woman, and "2 Negroes"), and a specific accounting of the different food purchased for the event; Storer also lists expenses for an 1748 "supper for the graduates."

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).

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.

Student notebook of Thomas Prince, ca. 1707

Paper notebook in Latin on classical Greek grammar. The name "Thomas Prince" appears on the first page. The manuscript is undated. Based on the signature, this volume is assumed to have belonged to Thomas Prince, Sr., although it is undated and may have indeed belonged to Thomas Prince, Jr.