Student compositions of Washington Allston, 1799

Handwritten essay about procrastination and a poem celebrating spring composed by Washington Allston while he was an undergraduate at Harvard. The essay uses a story about a young Italian named Bernardo to discuss the consequences of procrastination. The essay is labeled “Allston Novem. ’99" and is titled with a quote from Edward Young's poem "The Complaint," “Procrastination is Theif [sic] of time.” Allston’s poem celebrates spring and incorporates Phillida and Corydon, two characters from Nicholas Breton’s poem “Phillida and Cordion.” The poem is titled with the verses, “Chief, lovely spring, in thee, and thy soft scenes, / The smiling God is seen” from James Thompson's poem “Spring.” The poem is labeled "Allston July 10, 1799."

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.

Daily pocket journal of John and Hannah Winthrop, 1766-1779

Small printed daily pocket journal repurposed by both John and Hannah between 1766 and 1779 to record household accounts including livestock pasturing, income received, and payments to servants, merchants, and tradesmen for food, livestock, clothing, linen, etc. Many of the pages are unused. The January-April pages contain account records from 1766-1779, one page in June has a few accounting notes from September 1779, the rest of June-November is empty, and three books are listed on a November page. The last three calendar pages contain lists of books in Hannah's handwriting dated 1773 and August 1768.

Eulogy of George Washington, ca. 1800

This manuscript, which White entitled A faint sketch of the character, history & services of the Immortal Washington, appears to be a draft of the eulogy on Washington that he delivered publicly in Methuen and which was printed by Seth H. Moore and published by in February 1800.

Quarter bill book for the Classes of 1776-1779, 1775

Three folded sheets containing quarter bill tallies for the Classes of 1776-1779 for the quarters ending on March 1775, June 1775, and September 1775, with totals for all students in each category also provided.

Returns of Steward Jonathan Hastings, 1779

Returns dated May 11, 1779, June 1, 1779, July 2, 1779, August 30, 1779, September 6, 1779, October 2, 1779, October 15, 1779, November 12, 1779, and November 24, 1779.

Classology: An Anacreontic Ode, in imitation of "Heathen Mythology," 1843

8-page pamphlet.

Classology: An Anacreontic Ode, in imitation of "Heathen Mythology," 1843

8-page pamphlet bound in hardcover binding.

James Mann, AM, 1779

Degree received in 1779; diploma granted in 1782.

Annotated almanac, 1779

Almanac containing interleaved pages and sporadic annotations of household activities on the calendar pages by John Winthrop. The front inside cover has some accounting entries. The interleaved pages contain entries with almost daily notes of social engagements and travel for January through May 1, a list of the "Agents in Middlsesx 1779 & Comrs," and a list of citations made in January-April in Winthrop's capacity as a Judge of Probate. There is also a laid-in leaf with some accounting figures.

Annotated almanac, 1779

Almanac with one folded interleaved page and minimal annotations of household activities on the calendar pages in the hands of John and Hannah Winthrop. The interleaved leaf contains notes of burials and baptisms for Cambridge in 1777 in John Winthrop's hand, and some notes of household activities in Hannah Winthrop's hand. The laid-in page contains notes about hay and some calculation. The folded interleaved leaf contains entries about household activities in Hannah Winthrop's hand, notes of burials and baptisms for Cambridge in 1779 begun in John Winthrop's hand and finished by Hannah Winthrop. Hannah's entries include, "died May the 3 Honorable Dr Winthrop 6h 1/2 Languishment Buried the 8."

College Book 3, 1636-1779

This volume was begun by Thomas Danforth, most likely around 1687, and contains transcriptions of donation records, property inventories, College laws, Overseers and Corporation minutes, and other official documents dating from 1636 onwards. By copying these documents into one volume, Danforth brought together a chronicle of Harvard's early history. Some of its content duplicates that of College Book 1, and other entries were copied from sources which no longer exist, including College Book 2, which was destroyed by fire in 1764. Danforth, who served as College Treasurer from 1650 to 1668, as Steward from 1668 to 1682, and again as Treasurer from 1682 to 1683, is believed to have created this volume as a precautionary measure during the great upheaval surrounding the 1684 annulment of the Royal Charter of the Massachusetts Colony and consequent dissolution of the Harvard Corporation. Some scholars believe he created College Book 3 in fear that the College's original records, from which it was largely derived and copied, might be destroyed.

An Oration Delivered on the eighth day of May one thousand seven hundred and seventy nine. At the Funeral of the Hon'ble John Winthrop..., 1779-1780

Small pamphlet bound in brown paper containing a handwritten nine-page copy of Stephen Sewall's funeral oration for Hollis Professor Mathematics and Natural Philosophy John Winthrop delivered May 8, 1779. The title page includes the inscription: "The lips of the wise disperse knowledge,/ A Man shall be comended [sic] according to his Wisdom -- Solomon."