Photo of cards handed out by police to female students at Rutgers University

General note: Title and date provided by Bettye Lane.

Letters from Timothy Pickering to his brother and father, 1797-1798

These two handwritten letters by Timothy Pickering were written on February 14, 1797 and June 14, 1798 to his brother John Pickering and his father Timothy Pickering, respectively. The letter to his brother, John, discusses mutual friends, classmate Thomas Lee, and John’s recent attendance at a sermon by Dr. Joseph Priestley. The letter from Timothy to his father includes a discussion of Timothy’s expenses and the amount of money needed to pay his debts, a request for new shoes for commencement, the news of Timothy’s invitation to join honor society Phi Beta Kappa, and a few comments on his forensics course at Harvard.

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.

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."

Letter from Lemuel Shaw to Susanna Shaw, January 3, 1797

This single page handwritten letter was sent from Lemuel Shaw to his mother, Susanna, during his freshman year at Harvard. In the letter, he requested that his mother wash and return his dirty laundry and send him clothes, including a pair of overalls, some neck-handkerchiefs, and a new hat. Shaw also asked for money to be sent to pay off his debt of $21.25 to Mr. Richard Hunnewell for board and rent, $18.93 for the previous quarter’s bill, and $1.15 for Mr. Timothy Alden, the College Butler.