Hope: a poem delivered at an exhibition in Cambridge, July 10, 1800

This four-page handwritten poem was composed by Harvard student Joseph Mansfield for a College exhibition on July 8, 1800. The poem begins, "I am not blesd, but may hereafter be; / Who knows what fortune has in store for me?" and concludes with verses about the American Revolutionary War and George Washington.

Student poem composed by Joseph Story, 1796

Four-page handwritten poem composed in English by Joseph Story as a Harvard undergraduate. The verso of the last page is inscribed "Story's 1796." The poem contains classical allusions and is titled with the quote: "Aut Caeusar, aut nullus." The poem begins, "In elder climes, ere science' mystic page / Gave light unfolded to a barbarous age..." The poem ends with verse about George Washington. The text includes edits and struck-through words.

Mathematical notebook attributed to Thaddeus Mason Harris, ca. 1787

Hardcover notebook containing handwritten transcriptions of rules, cases, and examples from 18th century mathematical texts. The author and purpose of the volume is unclear, though it has been connected with Thaddeus Mason Harris (Harvard AB 1787). Most of the entries include questions and related answers, suggesting the notebook was used as a manuscript textbook and workbook. The extracts appear to be copied from John Dean's " Practical arithmetic" (published in 1756 and 1761), Daniel Fenning's "The young algebraist's companion" (published in multiple editions beginning in 1750), and Martin Clare's "Youth's introduction to trade and business" (extracts first included in 1748 edition).

Letters from Benjamin Welles to John Henry Tudor, 1799-1801

Benjamin Welles wrote these six letters to his friend and classmate, John Henry Tudor, between 1799 and 1801. Four of the letters are dated, and the dates of the other two can be deduced from their contents. Welles wrote Tudor four times in September 1799, at the onset of their senior year at Harvard, in an attempt to clear up hurt feelings and false rumors that he believed had caused a chill in their friendship. The cause of the rift is never fully explained, though Welles alludes to "a viper" and "villainous hypocrite" who apparently spread rumors and fueled discord between the two friends. In one letter, Welles asserts that "College is a rascal's Elysium - or the feeling man's hell." In another he writes: "College, Tudor, is a furnace to the phlegmatic, & a Greenland to thee feeling man; it has an atmosphere which breathes contagion to the soul [...] Villains fatten here. College is the embryo of hell." Whatever their discord, the wounds were apparently eventually healed; in a letter written June 26, 1800, Welles writes to ask Tudor about his impending speech at Commencement exercises. In an October 29, 1801 letter, Welles writes to Tudor in Philadelphia (where he appears to have traveled in attempts to recover his failing health) and expresses strong wishes for his friend's recovery and return to Boston. This letter also contains news of their classmate Washington Allston's meeting with painters Henry Fuseli and Benjamin West.

Thaddeus Mason Harris' working documents regarding subject-based library catalog, ca. 1790

Thaddeus Mason Harris, who served as interim librarian of the Harvard College Library in 1787 and as its librarian from 1791 through 1793, is believed to have created these notes while helping compile the library's first printed subject-based catalog. The catalog, Catalogus Bibliothecae Harvardianae Cantabrigiae Nov-Anglorum, was published in 1790 and represented a significant change in approach to the cataloging of the library's collections, which had formerly been cataloged alphabetically. These documents, many of them on small scraps of paper, contain the titles and bibliographic information of books on a range of topics, from "Anatomici" to "Rhetorica."

Account book of Andrew Croswell, 1794-1802

Andrew Croswell kept this account book while an undergraduate at Harvard College. It contains entries from 1794, the year he entered, until his graduation in 1798. There is also one entry on the back cover apparently made in 1802. The entries, divided by school term, are very detailed. Croswell indicates the cost of the following, among many other expenses and purchases: transportation, most often to Hingham and Plymouth; payment for "passing the bridge"; candles; hiring a horse; wood and having it cut; laundry; quills and pencils; paper and ink; razors, haircuts, hair ribbons; a trunk; clothing and cloth for trousers; furniture; tickets to the theater; door locks; a bowl and spoon; "batts and balls" and "other necessaries"; tobacco; toothbrushes; shoe and boot repair; fruit; wine, brandy and rum; cheese; coffee and tea; butter; lemons; sugar; and wafers. There are also entries for college-related costs, including the payment of quarter bills, buttery bills, Hasty Pudding Club dues, and a fee to the President of Harvard College related to Croswell's graduation. There are also entries pertaining to the cost of celebrating various special occasions, including Election Day, Christmas Eve, "Independent Day," and George Washington's birthday.

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.

Letters from Timothy Pickering to his brother and father, 1797-1798

These two handwritten letters by Timothy Pickering were written on February 14, 1797 and June 14, 1798 to his brother John Pickering and his father Timothy Pickering, respectively. The letter to his brother, John, discusses mutual friends, classmate Thomas Lee, and John’s recent attendance at a sermon by Dr. Joseph Priestley. The letter from Timothy to his father includes a discussion of Timothy’s expenses and the amount of money needed to pay his debts, a request for new shoes for commencement, the news of Timothy’s invitation to join honor society Phi Beta Kappa, and a few comments on his forensics course at Harvard.

Map of the Indus River and the neighbouring countries: comprising Sind, parts of Beloochistan and Afghanistan, Cashmeer, Punjab, Bhawulpoor, the protected Sikh States, Bickaneer and Jaysulmeer; & the Western Parts of Rajpootana

compiled by order of Government in the Office of the Surveyor General of India [Geo. Everest] from authentic and recent materials April 1834 by J. Graham ; drawn by Ed. Winston and D. F. Chill.

Plumadas /

"Colección de novelas, cuentos y artículos orijinales."

The leopard's claw : a thrilling story of love and adventure from a European castle through the West African jungle, disclosing a deep insight into the quality and spiritual influence of African social institutions and conditions, and revealing a profound psyschic [sic] interpretation of African inner life, all clustered about the mysterious function and significance of the leopard's claw /

Mode of access: Internet.