1794, Triennial catalogues annotated by William Winthrop, 1794-1812.

Leather and marbled hardcover binding. Substantially annotated. The volume consists of pages from the published catalogues pasted into a blank volume. The bulk of the volume is comprised of the printed list of graduate names found in the Triennial Catalogue accompanied by handwritten biographical information, usually a sentence in length. It begins with a handwritten section titled "Settled Ministers (in the first Parish in Cambridge)." The entries generally contain a residence, date of death (abbreviated ob), age of death (abbreviated ae), and professional information. While the 1794 Catalogue comprises the majority of the volume, names were added from Triennial Catalogues through the 1812 edition. An example of an entry, for John Hancock (Harvard AB 1754), reads “Rep. for Boston, Maj. Gen. Militia. Ob. Octo. 8. 1793 AE 57 Son of Rev. John of Brantree [sic]." A March 27, 1798 letter to Judge Richard Cranch (1726-1818) from Jeremy Belknap (1744-1798, Harvard AB 1762) pasted into the back of the volume. Written only two months before his death, Belknap describes his plan to "go thro’ the whole Catalogue of the graduates of Harvard College, & relate all that’s proper to be related." Four leaves of biographical notes for the classes of 1642-1686 towards the beginning of the volume are in a different hand with the note "Rev Dr. Holmes's handwriting."

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.