College Book 6, 1726-1790

College Book 6 is often referred to as the Hollis book, reflecting its contents. It was created following an April 4, 1726 Corporation vote that "Mr. Treasurer procure a Book, into which shall be transmitted, and a Register kept of, Mr Hollis's Rules, orders, Gifts & Bounties past & to come; together with ye Names & age, & Charecter of his Scholars, ye time of their Entry and Dismission; and also all ye Votes of ye Overseers & Corporation from time to time relating to ye said orders, Bounties & Scholars of the said Mr Hollis." Entries are primarily in Benjamin Wadsworth's hand and record donations from Thomas Hollis and his descendants, with transcriptions of related Corporation minutes. They also provide detailed information about the allocation of Hollis funds and scholarships, and the rules governing the Hollis Professorship of Divinity (established in 1721) and the Hollis Professorship of Mathematics and Natural Philosophy (established in 1727). The volume also contains inventories of books in the official library of the Hollis Professor of Divinity and two inventories – created in 1779 and in 1790 – of the mathematical and philosophical apparatus purchased with Hollis funds. Many entries related to the purchase of scientific instruments and supplies include the cost in sterling of each item. Also included are entries related to financial accounts and expenditures, as well as copies of letters from Nathaniel Hollis.

An Oration Delivered on the eighth day of May one thousand seven hundred and seventy nine. At the Funeral of the Hon'ble John Winthrop..., 1779-1780

Small pamphlet bound in brown paper containing a handwritten nine-page copy of Stephen Sewall's funeral oration for Hollis Professor Mathematics and Natural Philosophy John Winthrop delivered May 8, 1779. The title page includes the inscription: "The lips of the wise disperse knowledge,/ A Man shall be comended [sic] according to his Wisdom -- Solomon."

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.

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.

Student notebook of Ebenezer Parkman, 1720

The small hardcover notebook contains a manuscript copy of Charles Morton's Natural Philosophy copied by student Ebenezer Parkman (Harvard Class of 1721) in 1720, as well as notes on Hebrew grammar. The flyleaf has a faded note, "[This copy] was probably made by Parkman H.U. 1721 afterward minister of Westboro." The title page of the volume includes the handwritten title "Phylosophia Natvralis: Naturall Philosophy, By the Reverd Mr. Charles Morton Pastor of a Church in Charles Town, Beegan [sic] to recite it December 11, 1720 Willm Brattle's Book 1720 ended January 30 Anno Domini 1720 [January 30, 1720/1721]." The final page of the transcription is signed and dated "June 18, 1720 Parkman." The last pages of the volume consist of notes on Hebrew Grammar titled "Instruction in Hebrew."

Student notebook of Jonathan Trumbull, 1724-1725

The bound notebook contains academic texts copied by Harvard student Jonathan Trumbull in 1724 and 1725. The volume includes transcriptions of Harvard Instructor Judah Monis' Hebrew Grammar, Tutor William Brattle's Compendium of Logic, and Fellow Charles Morton's Natural Logic.

Student lecture notes of Benjamin Peirce, 1797-1798

This collection contains approximately twenty-three handwritten lecture summaries on six leaves made by Harvard undergraduate Benjamin Peirce between September 1797 and November 22, 1798. The summaries generally provide a few sentences describing the topic covered and primarily pertain to lectures on English grammar delivered by Eliphalet Pearson, the Hollis Professor of Hebrew and other Oriental Languages. There are also summaries for single lectures by David Tappan, the Hollis Professor Divinity; Samuel Webber, the Hollis Professor of Mathematics and Natural Philosophy; and John Snelling Popkin, the Greek Tutor from 1795 to 1798, and later the Eliot Professor of Greek Literature. There is also an undated summary of a lecture by Benjamin Waterhouse, the Hersey Professor of Theory and Practice of Physic.

Rubbing of the gravestone of Harvard librarian Nathaniel Ward made by David S. Ferriero, October 15, 1972

Large rubbing of the gravestone of Nathaniel Ward, librarian of Harvard college for one week in 1768. The rubbing was made by David S. Ferriero, and is signed and dated October 15, 1972 in the lower right corner.

Mathematical notebook, and commonplace book, circa 1689-1769

Manuscript notebook, possibly kept by Harvard students, containing 17th century English transcriptions of arithmetic and geometry texts, one of which is dated 1689-1690; 18th century transcriptions from John Ward’s “The Young Mathematician’s Guide”; and notes on physics lectures delivered by John Winthrop, the Hollis Professor of Mathematics and Natural Philosophy at Harvard from 1738 to 1779. The notebook also contains 18th century reading notes on Henry VIII, Tudor succession, and English history from Daniel Neal’s “The History of the Puritans” and David Hume’s “History of England,” and notes on Ancient history, taken mainly from Charles Rollin’s “The Ancient History of the Egyptians, Carthaginians, Assyrians, Babylonians, Medes and Persians, Macedonians and Grecians.” Additionally included are an excerpt from Plutarch’s “Lives” and transcriptions of three articles from “The Gentleman’s Magazine, and Historical Chronicle,” published in 1769: “A Critique on the Works of Ovid”; a book review of “A New Voyage to the West-Indies”; and “Genuine Anecdotes of Celebrated Writers, &.” The flyleaf contains the inscription “Semper boni aliquid operis facito ut diabolus te semper inveniat occupatum,” a variation on a quote of Saint Jerome that translates approximately as “Always good to do some work so that the devil may always find you occupied.” In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, Harvard College undergraduates often copied academic texts and lecture notes into personal notebooks in place of printed textbooks. Winthrop used Ward’s textbook in his class, while the books of Hume, Neal, and Rollin were used in history courses taught at Harvard in the 18th century.

The works of John Locke.

Includes indexes.

An essay concerning human understanding /

Includes index.

A treatise on geometry and its application in the arts.

Added t.-p., engr.

Painting and Drawing: Mitigating The Space Between the Internal and External

Thesis (Master's)--University of Washington, 2016-06

'Animal electricity' in the long eighteenth century with special reference to the Edinburgh medical school

Coleridge, looking back at the end of the ‘long eighteenth century’, remarked that the whole of natural philosophy had been ‘electrified’ by advances in the understanding of electrical phenomena. In this paper I trace the way in which these advances affected contemporary ‘neurophysiology.’ At the beginning of the long eighteenth century, neurophysiology (in spite of Swammerdam’s and Glisson’s demonstrations to the contrary) was still understood largely in terms of hollow nerves and animal spirits. At the end of that period the researches of microscopists and electricians had convinced most medical men that the old understanding had to be replaced. Walsh, Patterson, John Hunter and others had described the electric organs of electric fish. Gray and Nollet had demonstrated that electricity was not merely static, but flowed. Franklin had alerted the world to atmospheric electricity. Galvani’s frog experiments were widely known. Volta had invented his ‘pile.’ But did ‘animal electricity’ exist and was it identical to the electricity physicists studied in the inanimate world? Was the brain a gland, as Malpighi’s researches seemed to confirm., and did it secrete electricity into the nervous system? The Monros (primus and secundus), William Cullen, Luigi Galvani, Alessandro Volta, Erasmus Darwin, Luigi Rolando and François Baillarger all had their own ideas. This paper reviews these ‘long-eighteenth century’ controversies with special reference to the Edinburgh medical school and the interaction between neurophysiology and physics.

Chasing butterflies: The Conception of the Soul in Plutarch’s Works

When first approaching a topic such as the concept of material or natural soul in Greek literature, the researcher might be puzzled. While in diverse contemporary cultures, numerous theriomorphic figures (bears, ravens, mice, wasps, bees, dragonflies, and dung-beetles) serve to represent the human soul in its transmigration from life to death, this is not the case in Greek culture. At least, this is what one may conclude from the monograph written by the Dutch scholar J. Bremmer, The early Greek Concept of the Soul: "importunely, there are no other indications of a possible connection between the butterfly and the soul of the living and the dead" (1987: 64). Given Plutarch’s great interest in the soul, which can be seen in a variety of texts referring to its generation, form, internal dichotomy, material substance, origin and destination, etc., the question arises as to whether Plutarch also includes such a representation of the soul when departing from the dead body. Does the corpus plutarcheum preserve and transmit such conception of the human soul? And if it does, are we dealing with survival of ancestral beliefs or motifs or is it a simple metaphor by means of which ancients intended to express the departing of the life-breath? In the following pages I will focus on three texts that allegedly include the butterfly-motif to represent the human soul, to wit, Table Talks 636C, Consolation to his Wife 611F, and the fragment 177 Sandbach.