Student essay composed by Thomas Mason, 1796

Three-page folio-sized handwritten student essay composed by Thomas Mason as a Harvard undergraduate. The verso of the last page is inscribed "Mason February 1796." A quotation from Edward Young appears at the top of the first page: "Heaven gives us friends to bless the present science; / Resumes them, to prepare us for the rest." The essay discusses friendship and the death of friends, and begins, "The author of our nature has so constituted it, that pleasure is unknown without the intervention of pain."

Notebook, 1713

Paper notebook with nine pages of Latin text. The texts are titled: "Declamatio in Landem [Agriculthirae]," "In Laudem Artis Bellicee," and "Ut Sit Mens..."

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.

Lawyer's case book containing notes of cases adjudged and determined in the courts of Delaware, 1793-1796

Lawyer's case book containing notes on cases before the Delaware Supreme Court and Delaware Court of Common Pleas. Contains information on the cases and judgements.

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.