The expenses of a dinner provided at the installation of the Rev'd. Professor Williams, 1780 May 2

Handwritten one-page itemized list of costs for food and supplies purchased for the installation dinner of Samuel Williams (1743-1817) for his appointment as Hollis Professor Mathematics and Natural Philosophy at Harvard College. Signed by Caleb Gannett.

Vote related to the case of Packard, 1780 September 11

One-page handwritten draft of a vote of the Harvard Faculty forwarding the case of Asa Packard (Harvard AB 1783), who advanced money to the College steward on June 3, 1780, to the Corporation. The document is signed by Professor Edward Wigglesworth (1731/2-1794), who served as acting president of the College from 1780 to 1781. The document is missing text.

A Poetical essay delivered at Commencement H. College, July 18th AD 1781, by Mr. Jno Davis (manuscript copy), ca. 1780s

Paper-notebook copy lacking covers with a copy of John Davis's 1781 Commencement poem. The Harvard College Library stamp is on the front page.

Acknowledgment of Atkins, Dexter, Hall 1, 1780 March 22

One-page handwritten letter to "the Reverent the President, Professors, and Tutors of Harvard College," signed with the last names of Dudley Atkins, Samuel Dexter, and Joseph Hall, asking the President and Tutors for their pardon.

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.

College Book 10, 1810-1827

College Book 10 consists of multiple paper-bound waste books bound together in one leather hard binding. It begins with an alphabetical index and contains minutes of Corporation meetings held from November 14, 1810 through March 31, 1827. The last page of the volume lists the number of each page on which donations to the College Library are mentioned. Bound with this volume is a printed pamphlet, To the Reverend and Honorable The Corporation of Harvard University, signed by eleven professors and tutors in 1824, along with a manuscript response from the Corporation, entitled Report of a Committee of the President and Fellows of Harvard College on the Memorial of the Resident Instructors Asserting their Chartered Right to be Elected to Vacancies in the Corporation. January 11, 1825.