Farhang-i Shuʻūrī va al-musammāh bi-Navāl al-fuz̤alā va lisān al-ʻAjam

[Hasan Şuuri].

Catalog of books in the chest sent by Thomas Hollis to Boston, 1720 January 1

This one-page document contains a list of books sent to Increase Mather (1639-1723; Harvard AB 1656) by Captain Chadder on behalf of English Harvard benefactor Thomas Hollis (1659-1731).

Quarter bills for Samuel Stearns signed by Steward Caleb Gannett, 1793-1794

Six printed quarter bills for Samuel Stearns (Harvard AB 1794) with Steward and Commons, Sizings, Study and Cellar Rent, Instruction, Library, French Instruction, Medical Instruction, Books, Sweepers, Catalogues and Commencement Dinner, Repairs, Wood, and Punishment totals. Bills signed by Steward Caleb Gannett.

Quarter bill for Seth Low, 1800 August 28

Photostat copy of printed quarter for Seth Low (Harvard AB 1804) with Steward and Commons, Sizings, Study and Cellar Rent, Instruction, Library, French Instruction, Medical Instruction, Books, Sweepers, Catalogues and Commencement Dinner, Repairs, Wood, and Punishment totals. Bills signed by Steward Caleb Gannett.

Samuel Phillips donation (printed circular), 1794

Two-leaf printed circular regarding the distribution of religious books according to the bequest of the estate of Samuel Phillips. The circular lists Eliphalet Pearson as a member of the Committee for distributing books. There is a struck-through handwritten note about the distribution of Dr. Watt's Divine Songs. The circular has the inscription: "Papers of 1794. College Papers."

"A list of the books belonging to the late Library of Harvard College that were in the hands of the Overseers, Governors, & Students of the College & escap'd the flames," ca. 1764

This list appears to be the most comprehensive in this series. Although its contents are very similar to those of the list in Folder 2, there are some discrepancies. Entries are arranged by format (folio, quarto, octavo) and include the date the book was "delivered" (loaned), the name of the individual who borrowed it, and its author, title, and volume number. Many of the books had been out of the library for decades prior to the fire, with some loaned out since as early as 1742.

Justice of the peace docket books, 1769-1808

A collection of notebooks in which Hubbard recorded both legal and personal transactions in detail, including: writs, arrests, wills, boundary disputes, damages awarded in court cases over which he presided, various payments and expenses, etc. Also included are three notebooks kept by his nephew James Hubbard, who inherited Joshua Hubbard's farm; these primarily record the sale of cider and vinegar from his farm, costs of hired labor, and bank loans.

Docket books and fee book, 1791-1806

Consists of 7 notebooks and 1 account book. Notebooks list cases heard before the Massachusetts Court of Common Pleas for Middlesex and Worcester counties and the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court (March 1794-Sept. 1797; Sept. 1800-March 1802; June 1805-September 1806) and before the New Hampshire Court of Common Pleas for Hillsborough and Merrimack counties (March 1798-March 1805). The account book includes cases from Sept. 1791-July 1797.

A catalogue of books [donated by Jasper Mauduit] in the library of Harvard College [at]: Cambridge in New England, 1765

This leatherbound volume lists books donated to the Harvard College Library by Jasper Mauduit, who served as an agent in London on behalf of the Province of the Massachusetts Bay. Entries are arranged alphabetically and by format; i.e. the first page lists all folios whose author, title, or keyword begin with "A," the next page lists all quartos beginning with "A," and the following page lists all "octavo &ca" volumes beginning with "A." The volume continues in a similar manner for each letter of the alphabet. Following a devastating fire in 1764 which destroyed most of the books in the Harvard College Library, Mauduit donated books, as well as money for the purchase of books, to the College. He also acted as an agent of the Society for Propagating the Gospel in New England and Parts Adjacent, using the £300 they donated for the rebuilding of the College library to select and purchase a large number of books. It is not known if the books listed in this catalog are those donated by Mauduit himself, or if they are the donations he purchased on behalf of the Society. The creator of this volume is unknown; although all entries are made in the same hand, the identity of the writer has not been determined. The label attached to the front cover, which refers to the Lime Street address of Mauduit's business in London, suggests that the list might have been prepared by Mauduit himself.

A catalogue of books in the College library: [which Benjamin Welles wished to read], 1797

In this small paper-bound catalog, Benjamin Welles (1781-1860) listed books in the Harvard College Library which he wished to read. He presumably compiled the list by consulting the Library's 1790 printed catalog, as the works are categorized according to subjects outlined in that catalog (Antiquities, Astronomy, Ancient Authors, Biography, Sacred Criticism, Ethics, Geography, Geometry, History, Nature, Travels / Voyages, Natural Law, Logic, Metaphysics, Miscellaneous Works, Dramatic, Phililogy, Natural Philosophy, Poetry, Rhetoric, and Theology). The final pages of Welles' catalog, which he titles "Another Selection," list additional volumes he wished to read. These are listed alphabetically, A - G. Some titles throughout the catalog have been marked with a "+" perhaps to indicate that Welles had read them.

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 notebook of Marston Cabot, ca. 1720-1735

This leather-bound volume contains excerpts copied by Marston Cabot from books he read while he was a student at Harvard in 1723. The volume includes extracts from Charles Morton's 1687 Compendium Physicae (titled "of Phisicks" by Cabot), Dr. Adriani Heereboord (Adrianus Heereboord), Philosophia Naturalis and Johanne-Henrico Alstedio’s (John Henry Alsted) geometry text Compendium Geometria. The excerpts from Compendium Geometria include both figures and text, primarily in Latin with some Greek. The volume also includes “Theses quaedam extractae potissimum ex Enchiridio Metaphysico Domini Johannis Clerici" a précis of Jean Le Clerc's Ontologia et Pneumatologia made by Jonathan Remington, a Harvard Tutor from 1703 to 1711, to serve in place of printed textbooks. The names Jonathan Jackson and Edward Jackson are written on the inside cover, suggesting the book may have been handed down to Edward Jackson (Class of 1726) and his son Jonathan Jackson (Class of 1761). The text of the volume is in Marston Cabot's hand.

Thaddeus Mason Harris' working documents regarding subject-based library catalog, ca. 1790

Thaddeus Mason Harris, who served as interim librarian of the Harvard College Library in 1787 and as its librarian from 1791 through 1793, is believed to have created these notes while helping compile the library's first printed subject-based catalog. The catalog, Catalogus Bibliothecae Harvardianae Cantabrigiae Nov-Anglorum, was published in 1790 and represented a significant change in approach to the cataloging of the library's collections, which had formerly been cataloged alphabetically. These documents, many of them on small scraps of paper, contain the titles and bibliographic information of books on a range of topics, from "Anatomici" to "Rhetorica."

Mathematical notebook, and commonplace book, circa 1689-1769

Manuscript notebook, possibly kept by Harvard students, containing 17th century English transcriptions of arithmetic and geometry texts, one of which is dated 1689-1690; 18th century transcriptions from John Ward’s “The Young Mathematician’s Guide”; and notes on physics lectures delivered by John Winthrop, the Hollis Professor of Mathematics and Natural Philosophy at Harvard from 1738 to 1779. The notebook also contains 18th century reading notes on Henry VIII, Tudor succession, and English history from Daniel Neal’s “The History of the Puritans” and David Hume’s “History of England,” and notes on Ancient history, taken mainly from Charles Rollin’s “The Ancient History of the Egyptians, Carthaginians, Assyrians, Babylonians, Medes and Persians, Macedonians and Grecians.” Additionally included are an excerpt from Plutarch’s “Lives” and transcriptions of three articles from “The Gentleman’s Magazine, and Historical Chronicle,” published in 1769: “A Critique on the Works of Ovid”; a book review of “A New Voyage to the West-Indies”; and “Genuine Anecdotes of Celebrated Writers, &.” The flyleaf contains the inscription “Semper boni aliquid operis facito ut diabolus te semper inveniat occupatum,” a variation on a quote of Saint Jerome that translates approximately as “Always good to do some work so that the devil may always find you occupied.” In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, Harvard College undergraduates often copied academic texts and lecture notes into personal notebooks in place of printed textbooks. Winthrop used Ward’s textbook in his class, while the books of Hume, Neal, and Rollin were used in history courses taught at Harvard in the 18th century.