Valedictory poem delivered in the Chapel of Harvard University on the 21 June 1796: in the presence of the President Proffers & Tutors & the four classes of understudents at the request of the class who completed their college studies on that day

Handwritten draft of the Charles P. Sumner’s valedictory poem to the Harvard class of 1796, in a 19th century hardcover binding beginning “The youth by adverse fortune forced to roam…”. The poem mentions John Russell, a member of the Class of 1796 who died in November 1795. The copy includes edits and struck-out words.

The examination of John Owen late of New Jersey brought before me Jeremiah Langhorne ..., 1725

Title from first line of text.

The testimony of Samuel Parsons., 1703

Title from verso.

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."

Valedictory address of Stephen Hooper, 1761

Unattributed and undated handwritten Latin valedictory oration likely composed by graduate Stephen Hooper for the 1761 Harvard College Commencement. In the oration, Hooper praises Massachusetts Governor Francis Bernard, Thomas Hutchinson, Professor Edward Wigglesworth, and Tutor Belcher Hancock. The oration mentions classmate John Chipman (1745-1761) who died of illness on April 15, 1761.

Papers of David Sewall, 1753-1756

Three letters written to David Sewall (Harvard AB 1755). The first letter, written on September 21, 1753 by Samuel Sewall in York, to his brother at Harvard sends general news, asks after a hat sent to David, and requests he have a wig made for him. The second letter, written by Harvard student David Wyer on August 28, 1756, enthusiastically thanks Sewall for his past advice. The third letter, also sent from his brother Samuel in York on December 9, 1766, offers David advice on love. The two later letters were sent to Sewall while he was a schoolmaster in Wells, Maine.

Reports of the Committee of commons, 1800

This collection contains two handwritten committee reports that provide a brief financial overview of the Harvard College Steward's accounts for the quarters ending February 27, 1800 and May 29, 1800. The February 27th statement is dated March 4, 1800, and the May 29th statement is dated June 2, 1800.

Rubbing of the gravestone of Harvard librarian Nathaniel Ward made by David S. Ferriero, October 15, 1972

Large rubbing of the gravestone of Nathaniel Ward, librarian of Harvard college for one week in 1768. The rubbing was made by David S. Ferriero, and is signed and dated October 15, 1972 in the lower right corner.

Account book of the executors of the Henry Flynt estate, 1760-1767

The volume contains acknowledgements of the disbursements of Harvard Tutor Henry Flynt's estate written in the hands of the respective beneficiaries. The entries begin on February 27, 1760 following Flynt's death on February 13, 1760, and continue through May 9, 1767. Each receipt includes the date, name of the executors, description of the property, beneficiary's name, and signature. The beneficiaries include the wife of Sol. Davy, Dorothy Jackson, Edmund Quincy, J. Henry Quincy, Esther and Stephen Richard (received by attorney Nicholas Boylston), Dorothy Skinner (also received for her by her husband Richard Skinner), John Wendell, Edmund Wendell, Katherine Wendell, and Oliver Wendell, as well as Harvard College (received by Harvard Treasurer Thomas Hubbard), and the Deacons of the First Church of Cambridge. The volume also includes a loose document titled "Account from Messrs Edmund & Josiah Quincy Settled & Ballanced March 31, 1749."

A discourse on natural religion: delivered in the Chapel of the University at Cambridge, September 5, 1787

The hand-sewn notebook contains a 35-page manuscript draft of the Dudleian lecture delivered by Simeon Howard on September 5, 1787 at Harvard College. The sermon begins with the Biblical text Acts 17:28. The copy includes a small number of edits and struck-out words. The covers are no longer with the item. The lecture was not printed.

A discourse on natural religion: delivered in the chapel of the University in Cambridge, September 3r, 1795, at the lecture founded by the Honourable Paul Dudley, Esqr

The hand-sewn notebook contains a manuscript draft of the Dudleian lecture delivered by Thomas Barnard on September 3, 1795 at Harvard College. The sermon begins with the Biblical text Acts 14-57. The copy includes a small number of edits and struck-out words. The covers are no longer with the item.

John Warren's copy of votes from a meeting of the Boston Medical Society, 1784 May 3

This document lists the eleven votes cast at a meeting of the Boston Medical Society on May 3, 1784. It was authorized as a "true coppy" by Thomas Kast, the Secretary of the Society. The following members of the Society were present at the meeting, all of them doctors: James Pecker, James Lloyd, Joseph Gardner, Samuel Danforth, Isaac Rand, Jr., Charles Jarvis, Thomas Kast, Benjamin Curtis, Thomas Welsh, Nathaniel Walker Appleton, and doctors whose last names were Adams, Townsend, Eustis, Homans, and Whitwell. The document indicates that a meeting had been held the previous evening, as well (May 2, 1784), at which the topics on which votes were taken had been discussed. The votes, eleven in total, were all related to the doctors' concerns about John Warren and his involvement with the emerging medical school (now Harvard Medical School), that school's relation to almshouses, the medical care of the poor, and other related matters. The tone and content of these votes reveals anger on the part of the members of the Boston Medical Society towards Warren. This anger appears to have stemmed from the perceived threat of Warren to their own practices, exacerbated by a vote of the Harvard Corporation on April 19, 1784. This vote authorized Warren to apply to the Overseers of the Poor for the town of Boston, requesting that students in the newly-established Harvard medical program, where Warren was Professor of Anatomy and Surgery, be allowed to visit the hospital of the almshouse with their professors for the purpose of clinical instruction. Although Warren believed that the students would learn far more from these visits, in regards to surgical experience, than they could possibly learn in Cambridge, the proposal provoked great distrust from the members of the Boston Medical Society, who accused Warren of an "attempt to direct the public medical business from its usual channels" for his own financial and professional gain.