Diary of Elias Mann, 1796-1800

Elias Mann kept this diary during his undergraduate years at Harvard College. The diary begins August 17, 1796 and ends in August of 1800 and also includes several undated sheets filled with excerpts of poems. The daily entries describe many aspects of Mann's life, including not only his experiences at Harvard but also his involvement in the larger community. Entries related to life at Harvard describe club meetings (coffee club, Hasty Pudding Club and Phi Beta Kappa); trips to the theater; dinners at taverns; games and recreation, including a card game called "Loo," cribbage, backgammon, bowling, playing ball, fishing, skating and going for sleigh rides; gathering, and sometimes taking from others' gardens, food (most often plums, peaches, nuts and apples); what he ate (including one breakfast of three raw eggs and two glasses of wine); what he read (including Tristram Shandy and one of "Mrs. Ratcliffe's novels"); his friends, often mentioned by name; and academic work and formalities. In one entry he mentions the theft of several possessions from his room, and there are several entries about trips to Fresh Pond.

III. Diary, 1799

This diary, which John Henry Tudor titled A Registry of College Adventures, documents his life as a student at Harvard College. The entries describe his daily activities and notable events, including trips to the theater, hunting outings to "shoot Robbins," adventures with other students in local taverns, visits with his family in Boston and at the family estate, Rockwood, and the illumination of Cambridge in honor of George Washington's birthday. Tudor created and recorded a humorous classology, describing his peers at Harvard in a sometimes scathing manner, and also recorded information about those obliged to leave the College, usually following pranks or other unacceptable behavior. He also recounts his own involvement in pranks and other antics, which he believed to be the only antidote to the dullness of college life, and in one entry he describes an evening when he and several friends "disguised [them]selves like Negroes" and wandered into scholars' rooms without detection. Tudor was a member of the Hasty Pudding Club and the Porcellian Club ("the Pig club") while at Harvard and describes club meetings in several entries. There are also more reflective and personal entries, describing Tudor's feelings about his aging grandmother, his brother William's departure for Holland, and his desire for a "wife who shall make [him] happy[,] an affectionate dog [and] a farm & garden."

Letter from George Gardner Lee to Loammi Baldwin, 10 January 1814

Lee, a Boston merchant who often represented the city as deputy in the Massachusetts General Court, asks Baldwin if the laborers laying the bricks and stone for University Hall could be loaned for a few days to work on the construction of the South meeting house [New South Church].

George Alcock, AB, 1673

This folder contains an original (10.5 x 5.75 in.) and two photographic copies (12.5 x 9 in., 10 x 5.25 in.) of the diploma of George Alcock. This is the earliest known diploma to exist at Harvard. Alcock received his Bachelor of Arts in 1673 but did not receive his diploma until 1676. The diploma is dated April 19, 1676.

III. Diary, 1799

This diary, which John Henry Tudor titled A Registry of College Adventures, documents his life as a student at Harvard College. The entries describe his daily activities and notable events, including trips to the theater, hunting outings to "shoot Robbins," adventures with other students in local taverns, visits with his family in Boston and at the family estate, Rockwood, and the illumination of Cambridge in honor of George Washington's birthday. Tudor created and recorded a humorous classology, describing his peers at Harvard in a sometimes scathing manner, and also recorded information about those obliged to leave the College, usually following pranks or other unacceptable behavior. He also recounts his own involvement in pranks and other antics, which he believed to be the only antidote to the dullness of college life, and in one entry he describes an evening when he and several friends "disguised [them]selves like Negroes" and wandered into scholars' rooms without detection. Tudor was a member of the Hasty Pudding Club and the Porcellian Club ("the Pig club") while at Harvard and describes club meetings in several entries. There are also more reflective and personal entries, describing Tudor's feelings about his aging grandmother, his brother William's departure for Holland, and his desire for a "wife who shall make [him] happy[,] an affectionate dog [and] a farm & garden."

Letters to family members, 1799

Four letters dated March 11, 1799, written from debtors' prison ("Debtors' Apartment") in Philadelphia. Includes descriptions of his life in the prison and fellow prisoners.

Letter from Daniel Upton to James Savage, 1799 September 29

Daniel Upton wrote this letter from Machias, Maine on September 29, 1799; it is addressed to James Savage, who was then a freshman at Harvard College. In the letter, Upton advises Savage to study ardently, avoiding the temptation to procrastinate. He thanks Savage for having sent him a copy of "Mr. Lowell's oration" and sends greetings to a Mr. Holbrook and Mr. Jones. He also passes along the fond wishes of those in Machias who know Savage, including John Cooper and his wife, Phineas Bruce and his wife, and Hannah Bruce (Upton's future wife). Upton explains that he is writing the letter in a hurry because he is sending it on board with Captain Merryman, who is about to set sail, presumably for Boston.

Collection of Harvard College bills sent to George Wingate, 1792-1796

This collection of bills, sent to George Wingate while he was an undergraduate at Harvard College from 1792 to 1796, includes quarter bills, butler's bills, and bills and receipts of payment from two women, Mary Hilliard and Mary Kidder, who provided Wingate room and board ("board and chamber"). The butlers bills were created by the two men who held that position during Wingate's time as a student, John Pipon and Timothy Alden. Caleb Gannett was the steward the entire time, and thus creator of all the quarter bills. Some of the bills indicate charges for sizings and fines for punishments, and a bill from Mary Hilliard indicates that Wingate purchased candles, blank books and sheets of paper from her.

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.

An Hebrew grammar, collected chiefly from those of Mr. Israel Lyons, teacher of Hebrew in the University of Cambridge; and the Rev. Richard Grey, D.D. rector of Hinton, in Northamptonshire: To which is subjoined a praxis, taken from the sacred classics, and containing a specimen of the whole Hebrew language: with a sketch of the Hebrew poetry

as retrieved by Bishop Hare ...

Letter from George Richards Minot to Daniel Kilham, 1777 December 1

Three-page handwritten letter from Harvard undergraduate George Richards Minot to his friend and Harvard graduate Daniel Kilham, dated December 1, 1777. The letter describes the discipline inflicted upon Minot and seven of his classmates by the Harvard government following a “Thanksgiving frolic,” and the retributions carried out by the students against a Tutor who recommended harsh measures for the accused students. The Early Faculty minutes for 1777 (UAIII 5.5, Volume 4, pages 75-76) describes the students’ crime as “making riotous & tumultuous noises in the Hall…committed in Presence of a number foreigners, & and on a day appointed by Authority for public Thanksgiving.”