Notes on the Transactions of the Royal Society of London, undated

This folder contains four documents with undated notes about the College's holdings of the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London.

[Letter from Thomas Clap to Royal Tyler,] 1764 August 1

One-page handwritten letter from Thomas Clap to Royal Tyler acknowledging his return of "Mr. Sewals Hebrew Grammar" to Tyler and noting that the work is "best especially for beginners." The letter is torn into three pieces and some text is missing. A portion of the missing text can be found in Box 4.

Letter from William Croswell to [John] Bonnycastle, 1808 May 6

Draft of a letter to John Bonnycastle of the Royal Military Academy in Woolrich, England, requesting a recommendation.

Notebook on geography, navigation, mensuration, and other subjects, ca. 1723-1743

This heavily illustrated notebook contains entries on the following topics, among others: geography; mensuration; navigation and the history of navigation; "the use of Gunter's Scale in plain sailing;" compasses; quadrants and their use; "the refraction of the stars observed by the famous Tycho Brahe;" the latitude and longitude of coasts in America, Europe, and Africa; oceans and islands; mountains and "burning mountains" (volcanoes); rivers and lakes; forests and deserts; maps and sea charts; and the uses of geometry and other measurements by carpenters, joiners, painters, glaziers, masons, and bricklayers. Many pages contain navigational problems and their detailed solutions, as well as chronologies of global exploration and lists of all known rivers, mountains, and other geographic features across the world, many with vivid descriptions. The last pages of the notebook contain entries made in December of 1743 regarding celestial measurements Prince took in Stratford, Connecticut, where he was staying with his brother.

College Book 3, 1636-1779

This volume was begun by Thomas Danforth, most likely around 1687, and contains transcriptions of donation records, property inventories, College laws, Overseers and Corporation minutes, and other official documents dating from 1636 onwards. By copying these documents into one volume, Danforth brought together a chronicle of Harvard's early history. Some of its content duplicates that of College Book 1, and other entries were copied from sources which no longer exist, including College Book 2, which was destroyed by fire in 1764. Danforth, who served as College Treasurer from 1650 to 1668, as Steward from 1668 to 1682, and again as Treasurer from 1682 to 1683, is believed to have created this volume as a precautionary measure during the great upheaval surrounding the 1684 annulment of the Royal Charter of the Massachusetts Colony and consequent dissolution of the Harvard Corporation. Some scholars believe he created College Book 3 in fear that the College's original records, from which it was largely derived and copied, might be destroyed.

College Book 4, 1686-1750

Regular recording of Corporation meetings began in College Book 4, which includes minutes from July 23, 1686 through September 5, 1750. Its spine title reads "College Book 4 & 5" due to a nineteenth century labeling error. The creation of College Book 4 was precipitated by the English Court of Chancery's October 1684 judgment, which annulled the Royal Charter of the Massachusetts Colony and seemed to render the College Charter of 1650 – and with it the Corporation and Board of Overseers – defunct. In May 1686, Joseph Dudley (Harvard AB 1665) received a commission as the President of the Council of New England, and on July 23, 1686, Dudley and the Council met in Boston to create a provisional College governing board led by Increase Mather as Rector of the College and John Leverett and William Brattle as Tutors. The "Rector and Tutors" mirrored in purpose if not in name the Corporation's "President and Fellows," and the agreements of President Dudley and the Council creating the new governing board comprise the first entry in College Book 4. In June 1692, a new act of incorporation for Harvard College was passed in the Massachusetts Legislature and signed by the Governor. The Charter of 1692 merged the functions of the Board of Overseers and the Corporation into one Corporation consisting of the President, Treasurer, and eight Fellows. As the Corporation created by this 1692 act (and modified in later versions of the Charter) grew unwieldy, its members met less frequently. As a result, the Faculty (known until 1825 as the "Immediate Government") assumed more responsibility in managing the College's daily operations and addressing student discipline. On December 6, 1707 the Massachusetts General Court restored the Charter of 1650, thus reestablishing the Board of Overseers and the Corporation as the governing bodies of Harvard College. The changes in name and composition of the Harvard Corporation between 1686 and 1707 are documented in the proceedings recorded in College Book 4.

Lists of books granted to Harvard by the Massachusetts General Court, ca. 1778

The books listed were sequestered from "Cox & Berry's Collection" (British booksellers Cox and Berry) and from Province House, home to the royal Governors of the Massachusetts Bay Colony prior to the American Revolution. To the left of each book's title is a number indicating how many copies of that title were received.

Harvard College Master of Arts diploma of Samuel Mather, 1701 July 3

This diploma was awarded to Samuel Mather on July 3, 1701, when he received an A.M. from Harvard College. It is signed by Increase Mather (then-President of Harvard), Samuel Willard, Henry Flynt, Jabez Fitch, and Nathaniel Saltonstall.

John Winthrop's proposal respecting electrical globes and jars, ca. 1758

In this proposal, John Winthrop explains the need to replace damaged "electric globes" used in the College's collection of scientific apparatus. He states that Benjamin Franklin, at the time residing in London, was willing to seek replacement globes for the College's collection. Winthrop then proceeds to assert that the College should acquire "square bottles, of a moderate size, fitted in a wooden box, like what they call case bottles for spirits" instead of the large jars included in the scientific apparatus, because those jars cracked frequently.

The royal charter of King Charles the Second to William Penn, esquire, proprietor of the province of Pennsylvania, 1701

A copy of the charter giving William Penn land in the colonies. Also contains Penn's "Frame of the Government of Pennsylvania in America", the laws he established, and the charter of the city of Philadelphia.

Dominium temporale non fundatur in gratia (Commencement Quaestiones), 1697 July 7

Small paper notebook of John Ballantine with the handwritten Latin quaestiones performed by Ballantine, Eliphalet Adams, Adam Winthrop, and Jabez Fitch as candidates for the Master’s degree during the July 7, 1697 Harvard Commencement ceremony. The Quaestiones begin with Ballantine’s “Dominum temporal non fundatur in gratia,” and follow with “An Jesuitae possint esse boni subditi? Neg Resp. Dom. Winthrop,” "An Ethnicae virtutes sint verae virtutes?" Neg. Resp. Dom. Adams,” and “An detur omnibus an sufficiens ad salutem? Neg. Resp. Dom. Fitch.” The title page bears the inscription: “Jno Ballantine’s Book” and the first page has been torn out.

Student compositions of Washington Allston, 1799

Handwritten essay about procrastination and a poem celebrating spring composed by Washington Allston while he was an undergraduate at Harvard. The essay uses a story about a young Italian named Bernardo to discuss the consequences of procrastination. The essay is labeled “Allston Novem. ’99" and is titled with a quote from Edward Young's poem "The Complaint," “Procrastination is Theif [sic] of time.” Allston’s poem celebrates spring and incorporates Phillida and Corydon, two characters from Nicholas Breton’s poem “Phillida and Cordion.” The poem is titled with the verses, “Chief, lovely spring, in thee, and thy soft scenes, / The smiling God is seen” from James Thompson's poem “Spring.” The poem is labeled "Allston July 10, 1799."

[Court appointment to inventory the Gannett estate], 1818 April 29

A one-page printed Middlesex County Court of Probate form appointing and authorizing William Hilliard, James P. Chaplin, and Royal Morse to inventory of the estate of Caleb Gannett.