Letter from Caleb Gannett to Eliphalet Pearson, 6 December 1804

College steward Caleb Gannett wrote this letter to interim Harvard president Eliphalet Pearson outlining supply and labor needs for an on-time completion of the new college, Stoughton Hall, in Spring 1805. Supplies include lumber for staircases, corners, and doors; lime and hair for masonry; window weights, oil, paint, nails, hinges, and locks. Gannett also requests the services of a workman to complete a coating for the roof.

Salaries & grants voted, 1804 October 5

One folio-sized leaf containing a handwritten copy of certain votes of the Harvard Corporation on October 5, 1804 related to salaries, grants, and appointments.

References to certain articles in Coll. Books, [1804]

Nine small scraps of paper used by Pearson to note references to certain articles in the College Books. The notes are brief, for example "Professors' salaries p. 112," and refer to professorship rules, inductions, or salaries. The slips were originally folded into a little packet labeled "References to certain articles in Coll Books." One note was written on a scrap of a letter dated October 1, 1804.

Early considerations proposed to Corporation relative to choice of Professor, [1804]

Small leaf containing handwritten notes outlining the guidelines that should guide the selection of a new Professor. Title transcribed from verso.

Character of the Mr. Appleton, 1804 November 12

Small leaf containing a handwritten extract from a November 12, 1804 letter by Rev. Joseph Lathrop to Rev. John Lathrop recommending Rev. Jesse Appleton as the successor to Dr. Tappan.

[Notes on Christianity], 1803-1804

Three pieces of paper consisting of a one-leaf handwritten summary of unidentified lectures about the divinity of Christ titled "lect. 62 to 66, page 51, March 22, 1803," and two slips of paper with handwritten copies of two declarations about the Christian trinity and divine nature. The copied declarations are in two different hands, and one copy is dated "Cambridge Novr 14th 1804."

E. Committee to frame rules, directions, and statutes of the Boylston Professorship of Rhetoric and Oratory, 1804

This subseries consists of a paper notebook containing a handwritten draft of the report presented to the Harvard Corporation on April 30, 1804 by the Committee to frame Rules, Directions, and Statutes of the Boylston Professorship of Rhetoric and Oratory. The handwritten report provides a numbered list of rules related to the Boylston Professorship and is dated April 16, 1804. The report is followed by a certification signed May 1, 1804 from President Joseph Willard that he was unable to attend the meeting of the Corporation to discuss the professorship.

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.