Payment order for John Tompson, 1765 July 1

Handwritten order to John Sale to pay scholarship funds to student John Tompson (Harvard AB 1765), signed by Thomas Foxcroft, Charles Chauncey, Thomas Waite, and Daniel Marsh. Tompson's name is spelled "Thomson" on the document.

Payment order for John Edwards on behalf of his son, 1768 July 1

Handwritten order to John Sale to pay scholarship funds to John Edwards for use by his son, signed by Thomas Foxcroft, Charles Chauncey, Thomas Waite, Jonathan Williams, and Daniel Marsh.

Payment order for Samuel Adams on behalf of John Rice, 1772 July 1

Handwritten order to John Sale to pay scholarship funds to Samuel Adams for use by student John Rice (Harvard AB 1774), signed by Charles Chauncey, Thomas Waite, Jonathan Williams, and Daniel Marsh.

Payment order for John Popkin, 1792 July 16

Handwritten order to John Sale to pay scholarship funds John Popkin for use by his son, signed by John Clarke, David Tilden, and James Morrill.

[Letter from William Emerson to John Sale], 1819 December 3

Letter signed by William Emerson requesting John Sale pay the scholarship funds. The author of the letter is likely the son of the Reverend William Emerson, who died in 1811. William Emerson (1801-1868) received an AB from Harvard in 1818; his brother Ralph Waldo Emerson (Harvard AB 1821) received the Penn Scholarship from 1817 to 1820.

Petition to the Harvard Corporation from John Sergeant, February 1795

Date on document is incorrect; it reads 1796 but should read 1795.

A catalogue of books in the College library: [which Benjamin Welles wished to read], 1797

In this small paper-bound catalog, Benjamin Welles (1781-1860) listed books in the Harvard College Library which he wished to read. He presumably compiled the list by consulting the Library's 1790 printed catalog, as the works are categorized according to subjects outlined in that catalog (Antiquities, Astronomy, Ancient Authors, Biography, Sacred Criticism, Ethics, Geography, Geometry, History, Nature, Travels / Voyages, Natural Law, Logic, Metaphysics, Miscellaneous Works, Dramatic, Phililogy, Natural Philosophy, Poetry, Rhetoric, and Theology). The final pages of Welles' catalog, which he titles "Another Selection," list additional volumes he wished to read. These are listed alphabetically, A - G. Some titles throughout the catalog have been marked with a "+" perhaps to indicate that Welles had read them.

Letter from John Avery to Cotton Tufts, 1790 April 9

A handwritten invitation from John Avery to Cotton Tufts for a meeting of the Harvard Board of Overseers' "Committee to enquire into the state of the College" on April 13, 1790.

Commonplace book of John Bullard, 1775-1779

This bound volume contains excerpts copied by Jonathan Bullard from books he read as a student at Harvard in the mid 1770s. Excerpts include an unattributed poem titled "On Friendship," which appeared in the "poetical essays" section of Volume 36 of the London Magazine in 1767; Joseph Butler, The Analogy of Religion, 1736; The Quaker's Grace; a history of England; Newton's laws; Plutarch's Morals; Benjamin Franklin's writings on the Aurora Borealis. The volume also includes several extracts from articles about the death of John Paddock (Class of 1776), who drowned in the Charles in the summer of 1773, sheet music for two songs, "The Rapture," and "A Song" from Henry Harington's "Damon and Chlora," and a transcription of the satirical "Book of Harvard," written in response to the Butter Rebellion of 1766. Interleaved in the middle of the volume is a transcription from an ecclesiastical event moderated by Ebenezer Bridge in Medford, Mass. on November 20, 1779. The variety of texts suggests the commonplace book was not used solely for academic works.