Letter from James Winthrop to William Bentley, 1815 March 16

Two octavo-sized leaves containing a brief half-page handwritten letter from Winthrop to Bentley to accompany the deliver of a "small parcel of Irish Farthings."

Letter from James Winthrop to William Bentley, 1815 April 16

One folio-sized leaf containing a brief half-page handwritten letter from Winthrop to Bentley requesting time to visit with Hannah Crowninshield during the summer.

Letter from W. D. Peck to William Bentley, 1815 March 2

Two leaves containing a two-page handwritten letter from Peck to Bentley identifying and describing the fish species Ophidium as the specimen in a drawing by a young woman described by Peck alternately as Bentley's "daughter" and "Miss C." Bentley had no children, and Peck is presumably referring to Hannah Crowninshield, Bentley's pupil.

Letter from W. D. Peck to William Bentley, 1815 May 17

One leaf containing a one-page handwritten letter from Peck to Bentley briefly commenting on the receipt of a fish specimen.

VI. [Announcement for Elisha Sylvester], 1815 April 25

One leaf containing a one-page handwritten announcement for a Boston visit by book distributor Elisha Sylvester of Turner, Maine.

Letter from Samuel Willard, Deerfield, Massachusetts, to Susan Holland [nee Willard], Belchertown, Massachusetts, August 20, 1815

Willard says that everyone is in good health and asks his sister to write to him.

Almanac, annotated, 1740

Copy of Nathaniel Ames’ An Astronomical Diary: or, An Almanack for the Year of our Lord Christ, 1740 ... (Boston, 1740) annotated by Andrew Bordman II with entries filling the margins with notes about the weather, local news, and deaths in the community. Bordman noted the deaths of his grandchildren on the June page and payment for their gravestones. Some entries are illegible.

Account book of Benjamin Gale, 1740-1748 (inclusive)

Ledger containing lists of patient names and payments to Dr. Benjamin Gale (1715-1790) of Killingworth (now Clinton), Connecticut, primarily in 1743. Entries mostly included charges for "sundry" items and visits to patients by Gale, who accepted both cash and payment-in-kind.

Commonplace book of Moses Appleton, 1791-1815 (inclusive)

Volume containing medicinal recipes, medical notes, poetry, and obituaries written by Dr. Moses Appleton (1773-1849). Many of the recipes were copied from medical texts or other publications. His "cure for the dropsy," taken from the New York Herald, contained stale cider, parsley, horseradish, oxymel squills (sea onion in honey), and juniper berries. For diarrhea, he prescribed a blackberry syrup. Several entries indicate Appleton practiced Thomsonian medicine, an alternative system based on use of botanicals. The medical notes include an account of his treatment of a man with smallpox in 1815, and entries on patients he inoculated with cowpox matter. Another entry dated in 1796 provides instructions from the Massachusetts Humane Society for "treatment to be used with persons apparently dead from drowning," which included blowing tobacco smoke in the victim's lungs and applying warm blankets for several hours. Appleton adds a note questioning whether or not the lungs also should be "often artificially inflated." There is additionally a history of prominent physicians dating from ancient Greece.