Annotated almanac, 1743

Almanac containing calendar pages with sporadic annotations of unidentified measurements and interleaved pages with short handwritten entries about Winthrop's daily activities, and astronomical and meteorological observations. The entries include personal notes about travel, the weather, occasional alcohol consumption, and deaths in the community including a Latin note of the death of Winthrop's father (October 2) . There is an entry listing burials and baptisms in Boston, and a note that "Fever & fluxes prevail this month & prove very mortal" (September).

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.

[Average salaries of the presidents and professors, 1803]

One leaf containing a handwritten list of figures comparing the salaries and grants received by Harvard Presidents and Professors for various time ranges from 1775 to 1803. The paper includes the inscription "Merrill 1st."

[Notes on Christianity], 1803-1804

Three pieces of paper consisting of a one-leaf handwritten summary of unidentified lectures about the divinity of Christ titled "lect. 62 to 66, page 51, March 22, 1803," and two slips of paper with handwritten copies of two declarations about the Christian trinity and divine nature. The copied declarations are in two different hands, and one copy is dated "Cambridge Novr 14th 1804."

Letter from Daniel Updike to Eliphalet Pearson, 1803 September 19

Two leaves containing a handwritten letter of introduction for Stephen Deblois from Daniel E. Updike, Esqr. to Pearson.

Interleaved almanac, 1743

The 1743 diary is interleaved in Nathaniel Ames’ An Astronomical Diary, or, An almanack for the year of our Lord Christ, 1743. The thin paper-covered book holds brief notes about Holyoke’s daily life as an undergraduate, written on blank pages bound with the almanac. The pages of the diary are separated into two columns: the first to display symbols indicating when class recitations occurred, and the second for entries. Entries include information about student life, Harvard events such as Overseers’ meetings and individuals who preached and lectured, trips to Boston and surrounding towns, and occasional references to community deaths and illnesses.

Vote of the government on Disorders, 1803 May 17

Vote to suspend students Barber, Tower, and Whitman for disorders in chapel.

College Book 8, 1778-1803

This volume contains a fair copy of minutes from Corporation meetings held from May 5, 1778 through October 14, 1803. It begins with an alphabetical index and contains entries related to a wide range of topics, including changes in the College laws; lists of Harvard graduates; historical information about the College and its governance; memorials to the Massachusetts General Court about currency concerns, the West Boston Bridge, and other matters; the establishment of medical professorships and selection of professors to fill them; land and property belonging to Harvard; the settlement of accounts with former College Treasurer John Hancock; support of missionaries to several Indian tribes; the establishment of a student dress code; the Charlestown Ferry, and its revenue troubles following the construction of the West Boston Bridge; the purchase of a wooden sloop for transporting students' "fuel" (presumably firewood); the creation and distribution of library catalogs; the commission of a lucernal microscope for the College Apparatus; Oneida Indian Isaac Solegwaston and Harvard's financial support of his studies at the Hamilton Oneida Academy; transcriptions of a letter (October 23, 1789) from the Corporation to President George Washington and of Washington's response; a petition to the General Court for the establishment of a public infirmary to serve the indigent; individuals who were granted permission to instruct Harvard students in the French language outside the established curriculum; and Thomas Welsh's excused absence from his Harvard graduation, granted June 14, 1798, because of his imminent departure for Berlin to serve as Secretary to John Quincy Adams, then Minister Plenipotentiary to Berlin.

College Book 9, 1803-1810

This volume contains a fair copy of minutes from Corporation meetings held from November 16, 1803 through October 27, 1810; it begins with an alphabetical index.