Bliss, Nathaniel, 1622-1654, autographed letter signed to John Winthrop; Springfield, Mass., 1 side (2 pages), 1652 December 21

Correspondence regarding an illness Bliss was suffering; he writes that the medicines Winthrop had given him were ineffective and he has been suffering fits. The letter, which was finished in an unknown hand, reports further symptoms had developed, including headache and blindness, and requests Winthrop again send instructions for taking the medicine he originally sent Bliss, and any other medicine he would recommend.

Pynchon, John, 1621-1703, autographed letter signed to John Winthrop; Springfield, Mass., 1 side (2 pages), 1663 July 24

Correspondence seeking Winthrop's advice regarding treatment of his daughter, who had been vomiting and suffering insomnia and dry mouth for several days

Diocesan Episcopacy: as Founded on the supposed Episcopacy of Timothy & Titus, subverted in a sermon preached at Harvard College May 9, 1770 at the Lecture founded by Paul Dudley

Two handwritten drafts of the Dudleian lecture delivered by Amos Adams on May 9, 1770 at Harvard College written in the same hand. The sermon begins with the Biblical text Titus 1:5. The first copy (HUC 5340.70) is bound between black paper covers and includes edits and citations written on interleaved pages. The second copy (HUC 5340.70.2) appears to be a subsequent draft of the address with additional edits.

Sermon at the annual Dudleian lecture, May 13th, 1772

The hand-sewn notebook contains a 108-page manuscript draft of the Dudleian lecture delivered by Benjamin Stevens on May 13, 1772 at Harvard College. The sermon begins with the Biblical text Heb. 1:1, 2. The copy includes a small number of edits and struck-out words. The cover page is no longer attached.

An abridgment of what I extracted while an undergraduate at Harvard College, 1766-1769

The bound volume contains excerpts copied by Benjamin Wadsworth from books he read as a student at Harvard in the late 1760s. The volume includes almost no personal commentary on the readings. The excerpts are arranged by year of study for the academic years 1766-1769, beginning when Wadsworth was a sophomore. Each entry begins with a title indicating the book title and author for the passage, and there is an alphabetical index at the end of the volume. Wadsworth selected “extracts” from both religious and secular texts including several histories of England, American histories (with a focus on Puritans), the Bible, and in his senior year, “the Koran of Mohammed.” He also read several books on the art of speech and the art of preaching. There are few science texts included, though the final five-page entry is titled, “What I thought fit to note down from Mr. Winthrop’s experimental Lectures” and contains notes both on the content of Professor John Winthrop’s lectures as well as the types of experiments being performed in class. Wadsworth’s commonplace book offers a window on the state of higher education in the eighteenth century and offers a firsthand account of academic life at Harvard College.

Calor est de essentia lucis. Probatur, 1759

Two-page handwritten copy of a thesis composed in Latin by graduate Paine Wingate for the 1759 Harvard Commencement.

Greek translations by Benjamin Wadsworth, 1766

Two-page handwritten Greek translations created by Harvard sophomore Benjamin Wadsworth on folio-sized paper. The document contains Greek translations of two letters from J. Garretson's "English exercises for school-boys to translate into Latin," copied by Wadsworth in 1766. The first page contains two sections: "As it is in English. A Letter from one friend to another," containing a copy of Garretson's Epistle IV from "E.C.," and a Greek translation of the letter beginning "Kypie..." The second page contains a Greek translation of Garretson's Epistle III from "B.J," and a note by Wadsworth: "A Letter from one Brother to another. Taken out of Garetson's English Exercise. The 3rd Exercise. or 135st page. There is not room or I would write down the English out of which I translated it. September the 2d A.D. 1766. When I was a sophomore." The document is bordered with hand-drawn double lines.

Papers of William Merchant Richardson, 1797-1806

The collection contains a four-page handwritten poem titled "Invention" composed by graduate William Richardson for the 1797 Harvard College Commencement, and an 1806 letter of introduction written by Richardson. The rhyming poem begins, “Long had creations anthem peal been rung…” and contains classical references, and mentions scientists and philosophers including Voltaire, Franklin and Newton. The poem is accompanied by a one-page handwritten letter of introduction for lawyer Benjamin Ames (Harvard AB 1803) written by William M. Richardson to Reverend William Jenks (Harvard AB 1797). The letter is dated November 10, 1806.

Notes: concerning sermons : manuscript, 1728-1730

Notes on sermons delivered by John Webb and Peter Thatcher, Congregational ministers at the New North Church in Boston.

Account book, 1780-1802 (inclusive)

Account book of the Rev. John Lathrop, who was minister of the Second Church in Boston (Old North Church) from 1768 to 1816.

Triennial Catalogue annotated by Jeremy Belknap, 1791

The collection holds a heavily interleaved 1791 Triennial Catalogue annotated, in part, by Jeremy Belknap. A note by Harvard Librarian John Langdon Sibley, on the verso of the flyleaf, indicates a second annotator: "It should be observed that this catalogue is in the handwriting of two persons, Dr. Belknap & probably interlineations & additions by Rev. Dr. [John] Eliot. The interlineing part should not be too confidently relied on for accuracy. J. L. Sibley, April 14, 1848." The volume contains biographical notes, newspaper clippings, excerpts from manuscript and printed sources such as New England's First Fruits, the manuscript memoirs of Charles Chauncey, and John Winthrop's Journal, and a 1795 letter from Isaac Mansfield. In the letter, Mansfield references an item he believed to be written by his grandfather, Ames Cheever (Harvard AB 1707), and briefly describes his grandfather. A list of election sermon orators with dates is also pasted into the inside back cover, along with an obituary of the Rev. John Wales (Harvard AB 1728) from the Boston Post-Boy, March 4, 1765.

Letter from Fisher Ames to Samuel Shuttleworth, 1792 July 21

Two folio-sized pages containing a three-page handwritten letter from Fisher Ames in Springfield, Mass. to his brother-in-law, Samuel Shuttleworth. The letter discusses Ames's marriage to Frances Worthington on July 15, 1792. The letter is torn.