Letter from Samuel Willard, Deerfield, Massachusetts, to Catherine Willard, Petersham, Massachusetts, April [3?], 1810

Willard explains that he has been anxious to hear news about the family’s health so he sent a “lad that is living with us by the name of Leonard Smith to learn how it is with you + inform you how we are.” He also writes that his wife delivered a baby daughter last week; it was a difficult birth but she is recovering. He describes the baby’s weight and health, and also refers to some election results. At the end of the letter, he says that he has included a lock of his baby’s hair; the lock of hair is no longer enclosed in the letter.

Letter from Samuel Willard, Deerfield, Massachusetts, to Katherine Willard, Petersham, Massachusetts, January 18, 1811

Willard explains that he had intended to visit but cannot leave home because he has taken on another young man as a boarder, claims that his wife would write to her but does not have time because she is too occupied by domestic matters, and discusses other family visits.

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.

Letter from Samuel Willard, Deerfield, Massachusetts, to Cephas Willard, August 4, 1813

Willard explains that his mother’s health has been well since she has been staying with the family in Deerfield, and discusses the weather and harvesting of grain and corn.

Letter from Samuel Willard, Deerfield, Massachusetts, to Susanna Willard, Belchertown, Massachusetts, November 10, 1813

Willard discusses an issue regarding ordination procedures with the council at Greenfield: “I did not think it my duty to quit the ground, but defended my rights & told them with the utmost plainness, tho’ without anger, what I tho’t of their measures.”

Letter from Samuel Willard, Deerfield, Massachusetts, to Catherine Willard, Petersham, Massachusetts, March 7, 1814

Willard mentions that there is a sickness going around town and that three people have died as a result, with others feeling “dangerous sick.” He also discusses “Dr. [Joseph] Lyman’s pamphlet” and ongoing issues with the council at Greenfield. Included in the letter is a message from Samuel’s wife, Susan Willard, to Catherine, in which she provides pleasantries and mentions the family’s good health in spite of the town’s sicknesses.

Letter from Samuel Willard, Deerfield, Massachusetts, to Catherine Willard, Belchertown, Massachusetts, July 19, 1814

Willard asks his sister to come visit in Deerfield to “spend a number of weeks.”

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.

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.”

Letters from Benjamin Welles to John Henry Tudor, 1799-1801

Benjamin Welles wrote these six letters to his friend and classmate, John Henry Tudor, between 1799 and 1801. Four of the letters are dated, and the dates of the other two can be deduced from their contents. Welles wrote Tudor four times in September 1799, at the onset of their senior year at Harvard, in an attempt to clear up hurt feelings and false rumors that he believed had caused a chill in their friendship. The cause of the rift is never fully explained, though Welles alludes to "a viper" and "villainous hypocrite" who apparently spread rumors and fueled discord between the two friends. In one letter, Welles asserts that "College is a rascal's Elysium - or the feeling man's hell." In another he writes: "College, Tudor, is a furnace to the phlegmatic, & a Greenland to thee feeling man; it has an atmosphere which breathes contagion to the soul [...] Villains fatten here. College is the embryo of hell." Whatever their discord, the wounds were apparently eventually healed; in a letter written June 26, 1800, Welles writes to ask Tudor about his impending speech at Commencement exercises. In an October 29, 1801 letter, Welles writes to Tudor in Philadelphia (where he appears to have traveled in attempts to recover his failing health) and expresses strong wishes for his friend's recovery and return to Boston. This letter also contains news of their classmate Washington Allston's meeting with painters Henry Fuseli and Benjamin West.

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.

Thaddeus Mason Harris' working documents regarding subject-based library catalog, ca. 1790

Thaddeus Mason Harris, who served as interim librarian of the Harvard College Library in 1787 and as its librarian from 1791 through 1793, is believed to have created these notes while helping compile the library's first printed subject-based catalog. The catalog, Catalogus Bibliothecae Harvardianae Cantabrigiae Nov-Anglorum, was published in 1790 and represented a significant change in approach to the cataloging of the library's collections, which had formerly been cataloged alphabetically. These documents, many of them on small scraps of paper, contain the titles and bibliographic information of books on a range of topics, from "Anatomici" to "Rhetorica."

Mr. Abbot's sermon at the Dudleian lecture at Harvard College in Cambridge August 29, 1764 pm: being the third in course on the important subject of Reveal'd-religion

The hand-sewn notebook contains a 27-page manuscript draft of the Dudleian lecture delivered by Hull Abbot on August 29, 1764 at Harvard College on the topic of revealed religion. The sermon begins with the Biblical text Zech. 4:6 and Rom. 10:18. The copy includes a small number of edits and struck-out words. The lecture was not printed.

Sermon at the annual Dudleian lecture, May 13th, 1772

The hand-sewn notebook contains a 108-page manuscript draft of the Dudleian lecture delivered by Benjamin Stevens on May 13, 1772 at Harvard College. The sermon begins with the Biblical text Heb. 1:1, 2. The copy includes a small number of edits and struck-out words. The cover page is no longer attached.

Province of the Massachusetts-Bay, By His Excellency the Governor, you are by and with advice and consent of His Majesty's Council, ordered and directed to pay unto

Not in Evans or Ford.