Jessie Huey Laurence Papers - Accession 5

The Jessie Huey Laurence Papers primarily consist of correspondence, but also included are speeches, program notes, minutes, financial records, photographs, clippings, and scrapbooks relating to her role in the South Carolina Federation of Women’s Clubs (1928-1937); her promotion of a compulsory school attendance bill for South Carolina (1934-1936); the formation of the South Carolina Council for the Common Good (1935); Works Progress Administration (WPA) and Public Works Administration (PWA) projects in South Carolina; and her interest in the Catawba Indians of York County, as chairman of Indian Affairs Committee for the Catawba Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution. Subjects include literacy, Santee-Cooper Dam, Winthrop College, World War II, York County Historical Society, York, Chester, and Lancaster Counties and family history material including: Adams, Craig, Jackson, Lesslie, Lessly, Mull, Muehl, Robinson, Taylor, Weidner, Witherspoon, and Wylie families.

Bratton Family Papers - Accession 202 - M89 (114)

This Bratton Family Papers consist of a Yorkville Enquirer account (1903) of the unveiling of a monument by the King’s Mountain Chapter of the D.A.R. in commemoration of the Battle of Huck’s Defeat at Brattonsville, a newspaper account concerning the influence on Thomas Dixon and his writing the Klansman(Charlotte Observer, July 14, 1963); a biographical sketch of James Rufus Bratton, and a description of Brattonsville.

Battle Of King's Mountain History - Accession 44 - M19 (29)

Written by Helen Deane Chandler, the history describes the battle fought in York County, South Carolina on October 7, 1780, gives brief accounts of previous celebrations of the battle, contains illustrations showing the battlefield and monuments, and has information concerning the 150th anniversary celebration that took place in 1930.

Family and Church Records - Accession 49 - M22 (32-33)

The Family and Church Records consist of photocopies of records compiled by Mrs. W.H. Hamilton, Mrs. Fred C. Laurence and Mrs. L.F. Abernethy for the Catawba Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution. The collection includes mostly genealogical information including a history of the Crawford family, Reid family bible records, Roach family bible records, Joseph Palmer Moore obituary, Moore family chart, Andrew Jackson, Sr. and Elizabeth Jackson monument, Commission from Gen. Francis Marion to Captain James Witherspoon, Witherspoon family records, Alexander Love biographical information, and a cemetery list of Bethel Presbyterian Church.

Thomas Smithwick Gettys Papers - Accession 54

Thomas Smithwick Gettys (1912-2003) was a lawyer and U.S. Representative for the Fifth Congressional District of South Carolina. The Thomas Smithwick Gettys Papers consist of reports, resolutions, correspondence, news releases, government publications, and newspaper clippings, relating to Getty’s efforts to enlarge and develop the Cowpens Battlefield Site of Cherokee County, South Carolina. Correspondents include Ernest Hollings, Donald Russell, John P. Saylor, W.S. Stuckey, Jr., Roy A. Taylor, Mark W. Clark, Wayne Aspinall, and Stewart Udall.

"An attentive Ear, a watchful Eye, and a Calm judicious Pen": William Samuel Johnson, the Colonial Agents, and the Transformation of the British Atlantic World

By looking at Great Britain and the American colonies in conjunction with the larger British Atlantic Empire, historians can better understand the political, social, and cultural transformations that occurred when transatlantic actors met. William Samuel Johnson is an example of an "ordinary" agent who nonetheless had extensive contacts with numerous British and American thinkers. While acting on Connecticut's behalf in London between 1767 and 1771, he sent reports back to Connecticut governors Jonathan Trumbull and William Pitkin on parliamentary proceedings while corresponding with the people who traveled around the Atlantic world during this critical period-merchants, seafarers, emigrants, soldiers, missionaries, radicals and conservatives, reformers, and politicians. He is also representative of the late eighteenth-century empire writ large. Agents, who had once been a source of stability in the far-flung colonies, became a destabilizing force as confusion and conflict grew over conceptual ideas of what constituted "the empire" and who was included in it. Johnson was a sane observer in the midst of the ideological and administrative upheaval of the 1760's and 1770's. His subsequent loyalism and political obscurity during the war years was in many ways a result of his attempts to reconcile various factional interests during his tenure as an agent. Although he did his best to resolve these divisions and provide an accurate account of the powerful nationalistic forces gathering on both sides of the Atlantic on the eve of the American Revolution, the agents' collective failures as transatlantic mediators helped bring about the collapse of an imperial community. This disintegration had dramatic effects on the whole of the Atlantic world.

Breaking Points: Mutiny in the Continental Army

The mutinies of the Continental Army during the American Revolution threatened both the integrity of the army and the viability of the Revolution itself. They were complex phenomena, stemming from numerous underlying physical and psychological causes. Having slowly developed over the course of the war, the problems confronting the Continental Army eventually brought it to the breaking point. No less than four major mutinies, involving soldiers or officers, occurred between 1780-1783. This essay focuses on the reasons for the mutinies and how the participants justified their actions. It also examines responses from General Washington and other senior officers, and what effects these actions had on the army. Finally, this essay addresses the question of why so few major mutinies occurred given the miserable state of the Continental Army.

Vote of thanks and $100 for repairs of Massachusetts Hall, 15 December 1812

In this letter signed by President John Kirkland, the Corporation voted to honor Loammi Baldwin for his supervision of the repairs to Massachusetts Hall. Repairs included new doors, doorframes, and windows. These updates were likely delayed repairs of damage sustained during the American Revolution when American soldiers were quartered in Massachusetts Hall.

Lists of books granted to Harvard by the Massachusetts General Court, ca. 1778

The books listed were sequestered from "Cox & Berry's Collection" (British booksellers Cox and Berry) and from Province House, home to the royal Governors of the Massachusetts Bay Colony prior to the American Revolution. To the left of each book's title is a number indicating how many copies of that title were received.

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.

Manuscript copy of the book of Harvard, 1767

The pamphlet-sized manuscript includes "The Book of Harvard" signed "Joseph Cummings, scriptis, Janr 7th 1767," an untitled two-page essay beginning, "Wisdom is ye Crown of life" and ending "Draught of Knowledge, let us with a laudable ambition, strive to excel each other in an ardent pursuit of Learning, then shall we raise to ourselves a monument of honest fame, which shall perish only in ye general wreak of nature," and on the last page, "An Accrostick" beginning "Jangling & Discord are thy Souls delight" and spelling out JAMES MITCHEL VARNUM dated July 3, 1767 and signed "The 3d edition revised & improved by Gove & Fogg."

Letter from David Phips to Colonel Jonathan Snelling regarding escort of Governor Hutchinson to Harvard Commencement, 1773 July 12

David Phips wrote this letter to Colonel Jonathan Snelling from Cambridge on July 12, 1773, to inform him that Massachusetts Governor Thomas Hutchinson had requested the accompaniment of guards during his travels from Milton to Cambridge on July 21, 1773, to attend the Harvard College Commencement exercises. In the letter, Phips informs Snelling that he has issued warrants to the guards, instructing them to congregate at the Sign of the Grey Hound in Roxbury, Massachusetts at eight o'clock on the morning of the 21st. He explains that twelve other men will march, under the command of Sub-Brigadier Sumner, to the Governor's home in Milton to escort him to Roxbury, where the larger party will assemble. These heightened security measures were certainly prompted by political unrest, although this is not stated explicitly in the letter. Phips concludes by saying: "I shall order a dinner for us at Bradish's, where I hope to have the pleasure to dine with you."

John Winthrop's proposal respecting electrical globes and jars, ca. 1758

In this proposal, John Winthrop explains the need to replace damaged "electric globes" used in the College's collection of scientific apparatus. He states that Benjamin Franklin, at the time residing in London, was willing to seek replacement globes for the College's collection. Winthrop then proceeds to assert that the College should acquire "square bottles, of a moderate size, fitted in a wooden box, like what they call case bottles for spirits" instead of the large jars included in the scientific apparatus, because those jars cracked frequently.

Diaries of Benjamin Guild, 1776, 1778

These diaries of Benjamin Guild document his travels as a Presbyterian pastor in Massachusetts and Rhode Island. The daily entries describe people Guild met and dined with, the food he ate (including strawberries, currants, watermelon, English cherries, and lobster), the funerals he attended, and the sermons he gave. Many entries relate to his health concerns (the ague and eye trouble), sleeping habits, and widespread public health concerns (including smallpox, dysentery, "nervous fevers," consumption, and "putrid fever"). The diaries also contain passing references to the activities of American, British, French, and German soldiers during the American Revolution; the invasion of Canada and battles occurring in New York are noted. In August 1778, after visiting Providence, Rhode Island, Guild comments on the disordered state of the city after American soldiers passed through it. He also recounts a visit by officers of the French fleet to the Harvard College library in September 1778 and describes his dinner on board the French man-of-war, Sagitaire. One entry describes an elaborate ball sponsored by John Hancock, held for French soldiers and "Boston ladies," and another refers to the "incursion" of Indians. Many of Guild's diary entries pertain to his work as a Harvard College Tutor; these entries describe his lectures at the College, meetings with colleagues, personnel decisions, and the examination of students. He also describes books he is reading and his opinions of them, the purchase and sale of books, and his desire to learn Hebrew and French. In addition, multiple entries refer to a man named Prince, who was perhaps Guild's slave. Prince sometimes accompanied Guild on his travels.

A collection of autograph letters and original documents relating to the Island of Barbados in the 18th century, ca. 1730-1778

A miscellaneous collection of letter and legal documents relating to Barbados, especially prize causes, inheritance and slaves.