Overview
Sermons and other papers of Ward Cotton, clergyman of Boylston, Massachusetts.
Dates
- Creation: 1758-1851
Language of Materials
Collection materials are in English.
Conditions Governing Access
There are no restrictions on physical access to most of this material. Item (26) is restricted due to condition. See curator for access.
Extent
1 linear feet (3 boxes)Collection includes Ward Cotton's autograph manuscript sermons, prayers, expense and income book, and comments on classmates from Harvard Class of 1793. Also with printed pamphlets from his library (some signed), collected news clippings, a cabinet photograph of the William Crow House in Plymouth, Massachusetts, and wills relating to his extended family (Thomas Jackson (b.1729) and Lydia Jackson (1768-1849), both of Plymouth).
There also is a printed mortgage deed with manuscript additions from 1818-1845, for the Boylston Massachusetts homestead that once belonged to Ward Cotton. This deed includes signatures of Ralph Waldo Emerson and his wife, Lydian Jackson Emerson, among many others.
Biographical / Historical
Ward Cotton (1770-1843) was a 1793 AB graduate of Harvard College and a minister at Boylston, Massachusetts at the First Congregational Church.
Arrangement
Arranged into the following series:
- I. Ward Cotton sermons
- II. Other papers
Physical Location
b
Immediate Source of Acquisition
60M-229. Gift of Ward Cotton Burton (AB 1899) and his sons, Lindley James Burton (AB 1942) and John Cotton Burton (AB 1944), Deephaven, Wayzata, Minnesota; received: 1960 May 26.
Digitization Funding
Collections and items have been digitized with the generous support of The Polonsky Foundation.
Processing Information
Processed by: Bonnie B. Salt
Part of the MS Storage project, 2008-2009.
- Title
- Cotton, Ward, 1770-1843. Ward Cotton papers, 1758-1851: Guide.
- Author
- Houghton Library, Harvard College Library
- Description rules
- dacs
- Language of description
- und
- EAD ID
- hou02011
Repository Details
Part of the Houghton Library Repository
Houghton Library is Harvard College's principal repository for rare books and manuscripts, archives, and more. Houghton Library's collections represent the scope of human experience from ancient Egypt to twenty-first century Cambridge. With strengths primarily in North American and European history, literature, and culture, collections range in media from printed books and handwritten manuscripts to maps, drawings and paintings, prints, posters, photographs, film and audio recordings, and digital media, as well as costumes, theater props, and a wide range of other objects. Houghton Library has historically focused on collecting the written record of European and Eurocentric North American culture, yet it holds a large and diverse number of primary sources valuable for research on the languages, culture and history of indigenous peoples of the Americas, Africa, Asia and Oceania.
Houghton Library’s Reading Room is free and open to all who wish to use the library’s collections.
Harvard Yard
Harvard University
Cambridge MA 02138 USA
(617) 495-2440
Houghton_Library@harvard.edu