Letter from Samuel Willard, Lancaster, Massachusetts to Catherine Willard, Petersham, Massachusetts, June 18, 1799

Willard asks his sister to bring some of his clothes to a tailor, and also to make him a pair of linen gloves, and to send him various items from home, including books, a jacket, and a hat.

Letter from Samuel Willard, Cambridge, Massachusetts, to William Willard, Petersham, Massachusetts, September 6, 1799

This letter written to his father describes his arrival at Harvard, book expenses, and present financial situation; he also asks his father to build him a writing desk. Willard discusses the family of his uncle, Harvard president Joseph Willard, and his uncle’s health and issues with jaundice.

Letter from Samuel Willard, Cambridge, Massachusetts, to Catherine Willard, Petersham, Massachusetts, September 6, 1799

Willard complains about not having received requested items sooner, explains that his aunt gave him some furniture, discusses friends in Lancaster, mentions a blue coat that he would like to have made, and describes the house that he lives in, which was called “the Den or College House.”

Letter from Samuel Willard, Cambridge, Massachusetts, to William Willard, Petersham, Massachusetts, November 22, 1799

Willard details his various expenses for food, wood, tuition, and books, and explains his bill payment schedule. He also mentions President Willard and sends best wishes to his mother, brother, and sister.

Letter from Samuel Willard, Cambridge, Massachusetts, to Catherine Willard, Petersham, Massachusetts, November 22, 1799

Willard discusses tailoring his coat, asks to be sent another towel and a Bible, and describes the latest Harvard fashion: “Deep blue is the Colour most in Vogue in this Place.” He also mentions that the “President and his family are pretty well,” and that he is invited to dine with them about once a fortnight.

Almanac, annotated, 1736

Copy of Nathaniel Ames’ An Astronomical Diary: or, An Almanack for the Year of our Lord Christ, 1736 ... (Boston, 1736) annotated by Andrew Bordman II with brief entries in the margins beginning on the page for June 1736.

Almanac, annotated, 1736

Copy of Nathaniel Ames’ An Astronomical Diary: or, An Almanack for the Year of our Lord Christ, 1736 ... (Boston, 1736) annotated by Andrew Bordman II with brief death notices in the margins.

Deed of sale, 1736 May 8

Handwritten deed for furniture sold by Boston merchant Joseph Gilbert to Andrew Bordman.

Letters from Benjamin Welles to John Henry Tudor, 1799-1801

Benjamin Welles wrote these six letters to his friend and classmate, John Henry Tudor, between 1799 and 1801. Four of the letters are dated, and the dates of the other two can be deduced from their contents. Welles wrote Tudor four times in September 1799, at the onset of their senior year at Harvard, in an attempt to clear up hurt feelings and false rumors that he believed had caused a chill in their friendship. The cause of the rift is never fully explained, though Welles alludes to "a viper" and "villainous hypocrite" who apparently spread rumors and fueled discord between the two friends. In one letter, Welles asserts that "College is a rascal's Elysium - or the feeling man's hell." In another he writes: "College, Tudor, is a furnace to the phlegmatic, & a Greenland to thee feeling man; it has an atmosphere which breathes contagion to the soul [...] Villains fatten here. College is the embryo of hell." Whatever their discord, the wounds were apparently eventually healed; in a letter written June 26, 1800, Welles writes to ask Tudor about his impending speech at Commencement exercises. In an October 29, 1801 letter, Welles writes to Tudor in Philadelphia (where he appears to have traveled in attempts to recover his failing health) and expresses strong wishes for his friend's recovery and return to Boston. This letter also contains news of their classmate Washington Allston's meeting with painters Henry Fuseli and Benjamin West.

Justice of the Peace record book, Windham, Vermont, 1799-1807

Contains records of summons and judgements in various kinds of court cases, fees and fines paid, and index of names.

Reports to the Harvard Board of Overseers, 1799-1917

This collection contains the reports of the committee appointed by the Harvard Board of Overseers to visit and inspect the Harvard College Library, dating from 1799 to 1917.

Student lectures notes on chemistry and materia medica, and medical recipes, of Lyman Spalding, 1795-1799 (inclusive)

Contains notes taken by Harvard student Lyman Spalding during eleven chemistry lectures delivered by Harvard Professor Aaron Dexter (1750-1829) in the fall of 1795 and recipes prepared and used by Spalding in his medical practice in 1797. The recipes include elixir vitriol, containing liquor, Jamaica pepper, cinnamon, and ginger, and an electuary for a cough, containing oxymel squills (sea onion in honey), licorice, antimonium tartaricum potash (a compound of the chemical element antimony and a potassium-containing salt), and opium. The volume also contains writings about chemistry by Spalding, some of which appear transcribed from published sources, in undated entries, and a diary entry from 1799 regarding an experiment with water.

Student lecture notes on the Theory & Practice of Physic, and patient case histories, of Lyman Spalding, 1795-1799 (inclusive)

Contains notes taken by Harvard student Lyman Spalding from lectures delivered by Hersey Professor of the Theory and Practice of Physic Benjamin Waterhouse (1754-1846) in 1795. The notes cover the history of medicine, theories of contemporary physicians like Herman Boerhaave, William Cullen, and John Brown, and topics like fetal growth, digestion, and circulation. The volume also contains six pages of patient case notes from Spalding’s medical practice in Walpole, New Hampshire, in 1799, which detail the patients’ symptoms and course of treatment he pursued. In the case of a young man who complained of pain in his breast following a wrestling match, Spalding bled him and prescribed a cathartic of soap and aloes. Spalding also operated on a man who cut off part of his ankle with an ax.

Mr. Cline's lectures on anatomy & surgery, 1799-1800 (inclusive)

Volume containing notes on the lectures of Henry Cline (1750-1827), a surgeon at St. Thomas's Hospital, London, England, that were kept by American medical student John Collins Warren in 1799 and 1800. The lectures were on topics including blood, blood vessels, absorbents, cellular membranes, and the nerves. There are annotations in pencil in an unknown hand throughout the volume.

Kiel, Germany, ca. 1736 (Raster Image)

This layer is a georeferenced raster image of the historic paper map entitled: Die Herzogl. Holstein-Gottorp. Residenz- See- und Handelstadt Kiel sambt dessen Hafen in einem accuraten Plan u. Prospect entworfen = Sereniss. Ducis Holsato-Gottorpiensis Sedes et celebre Emporium Kilonium una cum ejus Portu ichno- et scenographice accurate delineatum, delineante G. C. Holmer. It was published by Officina Homanniana ca. 1736. Scale [ca. 1:4,000]. Covers Kiel, Germany. Map in German and Latin.Note: Two maps appear on this sheet. The larger scale map of Kiel is the portion of the image that has been georeferenced.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 3 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, built-up areas and selected buildings, fortifications, ground cover, and more. Includes also indexes and 2 views of Kiel.This layer is part of a selection of digitally scanned and georeferenced historic maps from the Harvard Map Collection. These maps typically portray both natural and manmade features. The selection represents a range of originators, ground condition dates, scales, and map purposes.