Letter from William Croswell to William Newton, 1796 December 12

One-page letter from Croswell to William Newton, the Secretary to the Marine Society of New York, requesting a certificate to teach navigation.

Letter from John Henry Tudor to his brother, William Tudor, 1796

Tudor wrote this letter on a "Saturday morn[ing]." Although he wrote "1896" on the exterior, he presumably meant 1796.

Letter from John Henry Tudor to his brother, William Tudor, 1796

Tudor wrote "1896" on the exterior of this letter; he presumably meant 1796.

Letter from John Henry Tudor to his father, William Tudor, November 10, 1796

This letter was sent to Tudor's father in London, England in care of Thomas Dickason & Co.

Printed proposal and recommendation for a system of mensuration, 1796

This folder contains two newspaper clippings with the proposal for Croswell's "System of Mensuration," dated October 1796, as well as a printed recommendation for the work by Professor John Kemp.

Mathematics notebook, ca. 1714-1718, with chronology of the reign of Augustus

The first two pages of this notebook contain a comparative chronology of the reign of Augustus, outlined in two columns. One column outlines the chronology according to ecclesiastical scholar Laurence Echard, and the other column outlines the chronology according to William Cave. The rest of the notebook contains extensive entries on the following subjects, with related rules, problems, and illustrations: fractions, decimals, arithmetical progression, geometrical progression, "disjunct proportion, or ye Golden Rule," signs and symbols, integers, geometrical definitions, and Euclidian geometry.

Records of the Geographical Society, ca. 1796

This small blue-covered paper notebook contains four leaves with the handwritten records of the Geographical Society, an undergraduate organization at Harvard in the late 1790s. The records consist of ten handwritten "Laws of the Geographical Society" and a short list of fines dispensed on October 7th. A list of six student surnames is written on a scrap of paper and attached with pins to the notebook's inside front cover. The surnames likely correspond to six members of the Harvard Class of 1798: John Abbot (1777-1854), Isaac Adams (d. 1807), Francis Brigham (d. November 14, 1796), Humphrey Devereux (1779-1867), Joseph Emerson (1777-1833), and Artemas Sawyer (d. 1826). The notebook is undated but was presumably kept in 1795 or 1796 around the time of Brigham's death on November 14, 1796. While Brigham's surname appears in the list of fines, it is crossed out on the inside front cover.

Letters to George Simpson, 1796, 1806

Two letters to the cashier of the Bank of the United States requesting that funds be transferred to Andrew Bayard in Philadelphia, so that Paterson could receive his salary as associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court.

Lawyer's account book, 1796-1829

Contains entries regarding accounts describing a wide variety of legal services and fees performed for individuals and especially for several towns (Dartmouth, Taunton, New Bedford, and Mashpee). These services include probating wills, drawing wills, prosecutions, depositions, warrants, writs, and bankruptcy.

Student mathematical notebook of William Tudor, 1795

Notebook containing the handwritten mathematical exercises of William Tudor, kept in 1795 while he was an undergraduate at Harvard College. The volume contains rules, definitions, problems, drawings, and tables on geometry, trigonometry, surveying, calculating distances, sailing, and dialing. Some of the exercises are illustrated with hand-drawn diagrams. The Menusration of Heights and Distances section contains color drawings of buildings and trees, and some have been altered with notes in different hands and with humorous additions. For instance, a drawing of a tower was drawn into a figure titled “Egyptian Mummy.” Some of the images are identified: “A rude sketch of the Middlesex canal,” Genl Warren’s monument on Bunker Hill,” “Noddles Island,” “the fields of Elysium,” and the “Roxbury Canal.” The annotations and additional drawings are unattributed.

Letter from William Tudor to his father, William Tudor,

This lengthy letter, written to the elder William Tudor while he was in England, describes Tudor’s plans following his graduation from Harvard and provides updates on the activities of his siblings and the management of the household in Boston and family estate, Rockwood. He also writes about local culture, describing the plans of a Boston theater to put on a play called "Bunker Hill."

The invention of letters annotated by Charles Pinckney Sumner, ca. 1795-1796

Interleaved second-edition copy of Robert Treat Paine's poem "The Invention of Letters" with handwritten excerpts of 18th century poetry copied by Charles Pinckney Sumner. The excerpts appear to be verses alluded to, or emulated, by Paine in the poem. For example, Paine's verse includes "Beneath the shade, which Freedom's oak displays" and Sumner on the opposite page quoted Alexander Pope's poetry, "Beneath the shade a spreading beech displays." The excerpts include poetry by Alexander Pope, James Thompson, Robert Dodsley, William Falconer, William Hayley, Samuel Rogers, Richard Brinsley Sheridan, Thomas Gray, and John Denham.