Letter from Edward Holyoke to his child, 1766, January 18

One-page handwritten letter from Harvard President Edward Holyoke (1689-1769) requesting that the letter's unidentified recipient locate a book on academic costume previously mentioned by "Secry Oliver," referring to the Secretary of the Province of Massachusetts Bay, Andrew Oliver (1706-1774; Harvard AB 1724). In the letter, Holyoke explained that College alumni wished to give him a gown, and he wanted to determine the appropriate design for the head of a college. The recipient of the letter is identified only as "My dear Child" from "Yo'r Affect. Father, E. Holyoke." The letter also includes the note, "Give my love to my Dau'ter."

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."

Essays : manuscript, [17--]

Essays on the dispersion of mankind, the Council of Trent, the invention of writing, and other topics.

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.

Collection of humorous verses and sketches relating to Harvard College, 1769

Manuscript volume in various hands containing three general sections: satirical poems about Harvard tutors, a section of "last words & dying" speeches of Harvard tutors, and a copy of the Book of Harvard."

Commonplace book of Clement Weeks

Commonplace book containing a transcription of the "The Book of Harvard," a satirical account of the Butter Rebellion of 1766 followed with supplementary text of "The Arguments in Defence of the Proceedings of the Scholars" and "The Confession that was made after all was done." The above occupies pp. 1-14; pp. 15-18 missing. Pages 19-23 hold excerpts from Edward Young's Conjectures on Original Composition. Pages 24-62 hold excerpts from Saint Augustine's Heresies. Finally pages 62-64 hold an excerpt of Druidical maxims from the introduction of the first volume of Paul Rapin de Thoyras' The History of England (1724).

Manuscript copy of the book of Harvard, 1767

Handwritten copy of the Book of Harvard written on one large sheet of paper and signed Boston, January 10th, 1767.

Apologia de el instituto de los Jesuitas : parte primera.

Contiene: Constitucion de ... Clemente ... Papa XIII. en la qual se aprueba de nuevo el Instituto de la Compañia de Jesus : expedida en siete de enero de 1765 ..

Apologia de el Instituto de los jesuitas : parte segunda.

Mode of access: Internet.

Travels in various countries of Europe, Asia and Africa

v. 1-2. Russia, Tartary, and Turkey.--v. 3-8. Greece, Egypt, and the Holy Land.--v. 9-11. Scandinavia.

The life, extraordinary adventures, voyages, and surprising escapes of Capt. Neville Frowde, of Cork [pseud.] In four parts.

An abstract from a copy in the Rare Book Room at the Library of Congress.

Travels in various countries of Europe, Asia, and Africa.

Includes bibliographical references.

Travels in the Holy Land /

Mode of access: Internet.

Travels in various countries of Europe, Asia, and Africa. Commencing January 1, 1801 /

v. 1. Russia, Tartary, and Turkey (pt. 1, section 1.) --v. 2. Greece, Egypt, and the Holy Land (pt. 2, section 1.) -- v. 3-4. Greece, Egypt, and the Holy Land (pt. 2, section 2.)

A Translation of the oration deliver'd at the funeral of Rev'd. President Holyoke, by Mr. Sewall, Professor of ye Languages, at Cambridge, 1769 June 25

This small 11-page pamphlet contains a handwritten English translation of Professor Sewall's funeral oration for President Edward Holyoke on June 25, 1769. The translation begins, "Whereas the Summer advancing when we survey the Earth mantled in green..." The copy includes a small number of edits.