An abridgment of what I extracted while an undergraduate at Harvard College, 1766-1769

The bound volume contains excerpts copied by Benjamin Wadsworth from books he read as a student at Harvard in the late 1760s. The volume includes almost no personal commentary on the readings. The excerpts are arranged by year of study for the academic years 1766-1769, beginning when Wadsworth was a sophomore. Each entry begins with a title indicating the book title and author for the passage, and there is an alphabetical index at the end of the volume. Wadsworth selected “extracts” from both religious and secular texts including several histories of England, American histories (with a focus on Puritans), the Bible, and in his senior year, “the Koran of Mohammed.” He also read several books on the art of speech and the art of preaching. There are few science texts included, though the final five-page entry is titled, “What I thought fit to note down from Mr. Winthrop’s experimental Lectures” and contains notes both on the content of Professor John Winthrop’s lectures as well as the types of experiments being performed in class. Wadsworth’s commonplace book offers a window on the state of higher education in the eighteenth century and offers a firsthand account of academic life at Harvard College.

Payment order to the Harvard College Treasurer, 1715 September

This slip of paper contains a request from Harvard College President John Leverett to the College Treasurer John White to pay John Rogers for his work as library keeper, pursuant to a Harvard Corporation vote on September 27, 1714.

Quarter bill book for the Classes of 1757-1773, 1757-1769

Parchment hardcover bound volume containing quarter bill tallies for the Classes of 1757-1773 arranged first by seniority, and later alphabetically, and covering the bill period ending on March 11, 1759 through the period ending December 8, 1769. Billing categories are occasionally added or removed in the volume, including a Hebrew Grammar category in 1764, and one for the Hancock Professor in 1765. After each quarter's tallies, an additional section provides the totals for all students in each of the categories, and deductions for building repairs.

[Admittatur of Warham Williams (Harvard AB 1719)], 1715

Small notebook with a handwritten copy of the 1692 College laws copied in Latin by Harvard undergraduate Warham Williams and signed by President John Leverett and Fellow Henry Flynt on November 13, 1715.

Financial memoranda from John Leverett to John White, 29 August 1715

Harvard president John Leverett informs treasurer John White that the Harvard Corporation has voted to allocate funds for repairs to Stoughton College. Also includes a separate receipt for nails purchased in Boston for repairs in Stoughton College dated the same day.

Annotated almanac, 1769

Almanac with one laid-in folded leaf and annotations made by John and Hannah Winthrop. The calendar pages are minimally annotated with a note about household activities such as bringing the horse to pasture. The laid-in leaf contains entries on firing the household chimneys, baptisms and deaths in the community, and a bill of mortality for 1769 in John Winthrop's hand.

A Translation of the oration deliver'd at the funeral of Rev'd. President Holyoke, by Mr. Sewall, Professor of ye Languages, at Cambridge, 1769 June 25

This small 11-page pamphlet contains a handwritten English translation of Professor Sewall's funeral oration for President Edward Holyoke on June 25, 1769. The translation begins, "Whereas the Summer advancing when we survey the Earth mantled in green..." The copy includes a small number of edits.

Lists of books which came to the Library on May 10, 1769

Lists purchased books which arrived in two trunks, as well as books sent by Dr. Winthrop. All the books listed were entered into the catalog in October 1770.