Payment order for Thomas Adams, 1785 June 30

Handwritten order to John Sale to pay scholarship funds to student Thomas Adams (Harvard AB 1788), signed by signed by Charles Chauncey, John Clarke, Jonathan Williams, and James Thwing.

Payment order for Ephraim Eliot on behalf of Thomas Adams, 1786 June 28

Handwritten order to John Sale to pay the bearer the specified amount signed by Charles Chauncey, John Clarke, Jonathan Williams, and James Thwing. The verso is signed by Ephraim Eliot on behalf of student Thomas Adams (Harvard AB 1788).

Contributions for a bath in Charles' River, 1799 & 1800, 1800

Includes contribution totals from personal subscribers, individual donors, the Harvard Corporation, and the Humane Society for the construction of a bath on the Charles River. Also contains estimated costs for materials and labor.

Front elevation of cupola by Charles Bulfinch, [ca. 1812]

Pen and ink drawing by Charles Bulfinch of the proposed cupola of University Hall. Pencil drawing of interior of cupola on verso.

Agreement between John Lowell and John Walton, Thomas Mason, Joseph Holmes, and Samuel Mason to finish the basement of University Hall, 7 June 1814

This contract includes stipulations for finishing the two kitchens, windows, and floors in University Hall by the first of August 1815.

Collection of Harvard College admission form letter and bills sent to Charles Walker and his son Charles Walker, Jr., 1785-1816

This collection consists primarily of quarter bills and butler's bills from Charles Walker and Charles Walker, Jr.'s years as students at Harvard College, from 1785 to 1789 and from 1815-1816. It includes the following materials from Charles Walker: a form of admission (a printed form letter with manuscript annotations and signatures) from August 1785, quarter bills and butler's bills from 1785 to 1789, and occasional receipts of payment. The documents from Charles Walker, Jr. are less numerous, consisting solely of quarter bills from 1815 and 1816. The bills for father and son include annotations explaining the basis of additional or unusual charges, including fines for absence from lectures and prayers. The form used for the son's quarter bills, issued in 1815 and 1816, separate the amounts owed into the following categories: Steward and Commons, Sizings, Study and Cellar Rent, Instruction, Librarian, Natural History, Episcopal Church, Books, Catalogue and Commencement Dinner, Repairs, Sweepers, Assessments for delinquency in payment of Quarter Bills, Wood, and Fines. All of the bills are printed forms which were then filled out by hand, by either the steward or the butler, and issued to the students. Caleb Gannett was the College steward during both father and son's era. Joshua Paine, William Harris, and Thomas Adams served, successively, as butler during the father's era. Some of the butler's bills are signed by Roger Vose, a student who appears to have been employed by the butler in 1786 and 1787.

Motion for change of venue in the case of the Inhabitants of Massachusetts Bay Colony v. Charles Paxton, October 1761

A motion that the case not be tried in Suffolk County, on the grounds that the judges and jurors were residents of the colony. Pratt was attorney to Paxton, an attorney and commissioner of customs, who had incurred a debt to the Colony.

Diary of Thomas Marsh, 1751

Diary kept in an interleaved almanac from 1751. Entries in the diary are brief and sporadic, recording events including travel, visitors, weather, sermons heard, holidays, illnesses and deaths. Occasional expenses are noted, including ones for hay, cider, bottles, shoes, and doctoring. A few dates of college events are noted, including the semi-annual Corporation meeting and Commencement. On the last page is a list of student names, presumably those tutored by Marsh.

Student notebook of Thomas Prince, ca. 1707

Paper notebook in Latin on classical Greek grammar. The name "Thomas Prince" appears on the first page. The manuscript is undated. Based on the signature, this volume is assumed to have belonged to Thomas Prince, Sr., although it is undated and may have indeed belonged to Thomas Prince, Jr.

Student essay composed by Thomas Mason, 1796

Three-page folio-sized handwritten student essay composed by Thomas Mason as a Harvard undergraduate. The verso of the last page is inscribed "Mason February 1796." A quotation from Edward Young appears at the top of the first page: "Heaven gives us friends to bless the present science; / Resumes them, to prepare us for the rest." The essay discusses friendship and the death of friends, and begins, "The author of our nature has so constituted it, that pleasure is unknown without the intervention of pain."

Letter from William Tudor to Thomas Handasyd Perkins,

One letter in which Tudor writes of his relief at the acquittal of his brother-in-law Charles Stewart at a court martial. He also discusses speculation and trade, his shares in silver mines at Bella Vista and Chanca, Peru, and the political climate. He additionally references his role in planning the monument at Bunker Hill in Charlestown, writing, "I had something to do in originating and preparing the way for the Bunker Hill monunument, a truly patriotic object, which I believed was a proper way to excite public enthusiasm."

Letter from Thomas Giraud to William Tudor,

One letter mentioning the French ambassador to Naples, Charles Jean-Marie Alquier. In French.