Memorial to the Overseers of the Poor of Boston, 1826 August 21

One draft of a letter.

Financial bills and receipts, 1822; 1824; 1826

This folder contains four bills and receipts.

Memorial to the Academy of Arts and Sciences, 1826 April

Four drafts of a letters requesting support to reprint Croswell's 1791 Tables for Computing the Longitude by the Lunar Observations, with two related documents.

Cambridge Diary No. I, 1812-1826

Hand-sewn paper notebook containing brief entries dating from August 4, 1812, to April, 6, 1821.

Attempts in penmanship, 1826-1827

This folder contains two drafts of a document describing Croswell's experiments with penmanship.

Journal concerning the bequest and division of James Winthrop's personal library, 1822-1826

As described in the above biographical note, Winthrop bequeathed most of his library – including his father John Winthrop's books – to the newly established Allegheny College in Pennsylvania. All the books in his library did not go to Allegheny, though, and Winthrop bequeathed over 500 books to two individuals, Thaddeus Mason Harris and Harriet H. Peck. This paper-bound journal contains three lists: one list of all the books which were part of this bequest, with notations indicating their financial value; another list of "Mrs. Peck's part in the division of the legacy" (i.e. the books she selected); and another list of "TM Harris's part of Judge Winthrop's Legacy" (the books he selected). The lists indicate that Peck and Harris chose books from the library on February 3, 1822, and that the few books which remained afterwards were sold by Deacon Hilliard and the profits returned to Peck and Harris.

Subjects suggested by John Webster, 1826 July

A handwritten letter with suggested subjects from John White Webster, a lecturer of chemistry, mineralogy, and geology at the Harvard Medical College from 1824 until 1827, when he was appointed the Erving Professor of Chemistry (1827-1850).

Forensic questions, [ca. 1826], undated

Five slips of paper containing handwritten forensics questions beginning "Whether..." One of the documents identifies "Keith and Goodwin," indicating the question was probably performed by Omen Southworth Keith and Hersey Bradford Goodwin of the Harvard Class of 1826. The verso of that document is inscribed: "The Exhibition at the University will take place on Monday at eleven o'clock, AM.

Commonplace book of Hector Orr, 1789-1804

Hector Orr began recording entries in this commonplace book during his first year as a student at Harvard and continued writing in the volume sporadically until 1804. The entries written while he was a student, from 1789 to 1792, include themes written on the following topics: Time, Discontent, Patriotism, Virtue, Conscience, Patience, Avarice, Compassion, Mortality, Self-knowledge, Benevolence, Morning, Anger, Profanity, Bribery, Autumn and Winter, Hermitage, Conscience and Anticipation. He also wrote detailed entries about the forensic disputations in which he and his classmates participated, explaining both the affirmative and negative positions. One of these disputations involved discussion of the Stamp Act, which was then quite recent history. Orr's entries about the disputations list the names of students involved and specify their position in the argument.

District records, 1795-1855

District reports are reports on the occupants of College rooms, the condition of chambers and of other college property.