Draft of a petition to the General Court from the Corporation, 1743 October 26-27

Two-page handwritten draft of a petition to the General Court signed by President Edward Holyoke, and a half-page letter that accompanied the draft from President Holyoke to Tutor Flynt, a member of the Committee to draft the petition.

[Admittatur of William Lawrence (Harvard AB 1743)], 1739

Notebook with a handwritten copy of the 1735 College laws in English prepared by Harvard undergraduate William Lawrence and signed by President Edward Holyoke, Fellow Nathan Prince, and Tutor Daniel Rogers on September 9, 1739.

[Admittatur of Ebenezer Storer (Harvard AB 1747)], 1743

Marbled paper-covered notebook with a handwritten copy of the 1734 College laws in English prepared by Harvard undergraduate Ebenezer Storer and signed by President Edward Holyoke, Fellow Henry Flynt, Tutor Belcher Hancock, Fellow Joseph Mayhew, and Tutor Thomas Marsh on September 11, 1743.

Catalogue of freshmen, 1743

List of the matriculating members of the Harvard Class of 1747.

A s.w. [south west] view of Mass. [Massachusetts] Hall, [1828]

Pencil drawing of South West view of Massachusetts Hall.

Commencement subjects, 1828

A handwritten list of some of the subjects included in the Harvard Commencement of 1828.

List of students in April 29, 1828 exhibition, 1828

List of the student names from the Harvard Classes of 1828 and 1829 performing in the April 29, 1828 exhibition.

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.

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.