Letter from Samuel Willard, Deerfield, Massachusetts, to Katherine Willard, Petersham, Massachusetts, March 4, 1811

Willard informs his mother that his wife was “safely delivered of another daughter” and the “infant which weighs seven pounds, appears be strong + healthy.” His postscript explains that although he has been within a three-hour riding distance of his brother Solomon for two months, he has yet to see him.

Series: II. Letter from Joseph Willard, Cambridge, Massachusetts, to William Willard, Petersham, Massachusetts, August 4, 1800

Letter from Harvard president Joseph Willard to his brother (Samuel’s father) William Willard recommending a young preacher, Micah Stone, (Harvard College Class of 1790), to be assigned to Petersham’s church. He describes Stone as “liberal and catholic.” President Willard explains that he has asked Samuel to post the letter because, “I am just setting out upon a journey for my health, and leave this letter to be forwarded to you by your son.”

Inquiry of land rights, c. 1795

Handwritten list of five directives for completing the title search on a property purchased by a Mr. Harris from Andrew Bordman IV. The property was inherited from Bordman's mother Sarah, who in turn received the property from the estate of her brother Spencer Phips.

Power of attorney for Thomas Whippo, 1798 October 10

A handwritten translation of a power of attorney, on two folio-sized leaves, certified by Francis Sales and dated October 10, 1798. The power of attorney authorizes Isaac Whippo, an American citizen living in Bordeaux, France to act as the attorney general and special for his brother, Thomas Whippo, also an American citizen and captain of the ship the Ganges of New York. The power of attorney was created in the Office of Gabriel Duprat in Bordeaux, with William Henry Vernon translating for Thomas Whippo and was notarized by Joseph Fenwick, Consol of the United States of America on April 14, 1798.

Letter from Fisher Ames to Samuel Shuttleworth, 1792 July 21

Two folio-sized pages containing a three-page handwritten letter from Fisher Ames in Springfield, Mass. to his brother-in-law, Samuel Shuttleworth. The letter discusses Ames's marriage to Frances Worthington on July 15, 1792. The letter is torn.

Papers of David Sewall, 1753-1756

Three letters written to David Sewall (Harvard AB 1755). The first letter, written on September 21, 1753 by Samuel Sewall in York, to his brother at Harvard sends general news, asks after a hat sent to David, and requests he have a wig made for him. The second letter, written by Harvard student David Wyer on August 28, 1756, enthusiastically thanks Sewall for his past advice. The third letter, also sent from his brother Samuel in York on December 9, 1766, offers David advice on love. The two later letters were sent to Sewall while he was a schoolmaster in Wells, Maine.

Letters to Ebenezer Hancock from his mother, Mary Perkins, and his stepfather, Daniel Perkins, 1758 June 27 and 1758 November 16

These two letters were written to Ebenezer Hancock while he was an undergraduate at Harvard College. His stepfather, Daniel Perkins, wrote on June 27, 1758 and his mother, Mary Perkins, wrote on November 16, 1758. Both letters were sent from Bridgewater, Massachusetts, where the Perkins lived. The letters contain general greetings and wishes for Hancock's well being, as well as parental advice regarding his behavior and comportment.

" Lines upon the late proceedings of the College Government" collection, 1787-1917

This collection contains various manifestations of a humorous poem, most often called "Lines upon the late proceedings of the College Government," written by classmates John Quincy Adams and John Murray Forbes in 1787. Both Adams and Forbes were members of the class of 1787, and the poem recounts events surrounding the pranks and ensuing punishment of two members of the class behind them, Robert Wier and James Prescott. Wier and Prescott had been caught drinking wine and making "riotous noise," and they were publicly reprimanded by Harvard President Joseph Willard and several professors and tutors, including Eliphalet Pearson, Eleazar James, Jonathan Burr, Nathan Read, and Timothy Lindall Jennison. The poem mocks these authority figures, but it spares Samuel Williams, whom it suggests was the only professor to find their antics humorous.

John Warren's copy of votes from a meeting of the Boston Medical Society, 1784 May 3

This document lists the eleven votes cast at a meeting of the Boston Medical Society on May 3, 1784. It was authorized as a "true coppy" by Thomas Kast, the Secretary of the Society. The following members of the Society were present at the meeting, all of them doctors: James Pecker, James Lloyd, Joseph Gardner, Samuel Danforth, Isaac Rand, Jr., Charles Jarvis, Thomas Kast, Benjamin Curtis, Thomas Welsh, Nathaniel Walker Appleton, and doctors whose last names were Adams, Townsend, Eustis, Homans, and Whitwell. The document indicates that a meeting had been held the previous evening, as well (May 2, 1784), at which the topics on which votes were taken had been discussed. The votes, eleven in total, were all related to the doctors' concerns about John Warren and his involvement with the emerging medical school (now Harvard Medical School), that school's relation to almshouses, the medical care of the poor, and other related matters. The tone and content of these votes reveals anger on the part of the members of the Boston Medical Society towards Warren. This anger appears to have stemmed from the perceived threat of Warren to their own practices, exacerbated by a vote of the Harvard Corporation on April 19, 1784. This vote authorized Warren to apply to the Overseers of the Poor for the town of Boston, requesting that students in the newly-established Harvard medical program, where Warren was Professor of Anatomy and Surgery, be allowed to visit the hospital of the almshouse with their professors for the purpose of clinical instruction. Although Warren believed that the students would learn far more from these visits, in regards to surgical experience, than they could possibly learn in Cambridge, the proposal provoked great distrust from the members of the Boston Medical Society, who accused Warren of an "attempt to direct the public medical business from its usual channels" for his own financial and professional gain.

Diary : manuscript, 1666-1679, 1723, and 1726

Diary concerning chiefly religious matters, mostly Puritanical confessions of Tompson's piety not living up to the expectation of the Lord. There is also mention of the many afflictions God is "pleased" to bestow upon Tompson's wife.

Rabbinical manuscripts of Judah Monis, ca. 1700s

This leather-bound volume contains ten handwritten Hebrew texts presumably compiled by Judah Monis in the early 18th century. The pieces range from three to 150 pages on different sized leaves and appear to be in multiple hands. The last page of the volume has the struck-through inscription, "Judah Monis' Book" and accompanies a 44-page text. The texts are unattributed and undated, but have been identified as transcriptions of cabalistic writings and include a short biography of Isaac Luria (1533-1572) and extracts from the work of Luria, Hayyim ben Joseph Vital, Jacob ben Hayyim Zemah, Abraham ben Isaac of Granada, and Naphtali Bachrach. The transcriptions appear to be unattributed and undated.

Miss Rebecca Story's book : manuscript, 1796-[ca. 1803]

Commonplace book of poetry some by Porter; with a list of names of female students at Mr. Woodbridge Academy, 1796. Also includes a poem by Porter concerning the death of her brother, Isaac Story (A. B. 1793).

Relation de la conversion de Mr. Jean Thayer: autrefois ministre protestant à Boston, en l'Amérique Septentrionale, converti à la religion catholique à Rome, le 25 de mai 1783 et prêtre depuis la Trinité 1787 / manuscript, [after 1788]

écrite par lui-même en 1788 :

Provincetown Harbor, Cape Cod, Massachusetts, 1799 (Raster Image)

This layer is a georeferenced raster image of the historic paper map entitled: This chart of Cape Cod and Harbour is dedicated to the Boston Marine Society by their friend & brother, John Foster Williams. It was published in 1799. Scale [ca. 1:6,450]. Covers Cape Cod from Truro to Provincetown including Provincetown Harbor, Massachusetts. The image inside the map neatline is georeferenced to the surface of the earth and fit to the Massachusetts State Plane Coordinate System, Mainland Zone (in Feet) (Fipszone 2001). All map collar and inset information is also available as part of the raster image, including any inset maps, profiles, statistical tables, directories, text, illustrations, or other information associated with the principal map. This map is a nautical chart showing coastal features such as anchor points, currents, points, inlets, coves, and more. Shows also land features: windmills, lighthouse, and buildings pictorially. Harbor depths are shown by soundings. Includes text "Directions for sailing by Cape-Cod Light-House and into Cape-Harbour." This layer is part of a selection of digitally scanned and georeferenced historic maps of Massachusetts from the Harvard Map Collection. These maps typically portray both natural and manmade features. The selection represents a range of regions, originators, ground condition dates (1755-1922), scales, and purposes. The digitized selection includes maps of: the state, Massachusetts counties, town surveys, coastal features, real property, parks, cemeteries, railroads, roads, public works projects, etc.

Ann Barry Allen; Mrs. John Allen

On verso: This was said to be a picture of Ann Isabella Barry McCue Allen. She was born Jan. 22, 1797 daughter of Ihmus Barry (& brother of Andrew) & Ann Isabella Smith of New Kent, Md. The birthplace is given by John McCue at Staunton Va. She died there Nov. 28, 1876 at the home of her daughter Sarah Allen Waddell. Her first husband was Wm McCue M.D. born July 14, 1787 Augusta Co. Va. Died Nov. 7 1818 of flu. Her first husband was a man of prominence & education. She had two children Thomas W. McCue and John McCue