Subject catalogs (includes third printed catalog), 1789-1822

Materials in this subseries represent a significant change in approach to the cataloging of the library's collections. Rather than listing volumes according to size or alphabetical order, as had previously been done, by the late eighteenth century Harvard's librarians decided to arrange the collection - intellectually, though not yet physically - according to subjects, or "heads." This subseries contains both manuscript and print material. It includes the first subject catalog, entitled Catalogue of books belonging to the library of the University under different heads, which was created by Isaac Smith, Thaddeus Mason Harris, and Hezekiah Packard, with possible assistance from others, in 1789. Entries in this catalog include title, volume number, place and date of publication, format (occasionally), and alcove, bookcase, and shelf location.

This subseries also includes numerous supplements to that 1789 catalog, as well as the manuscript version (printers' copy) of the first printed subject catalog, Catalogus Bibliothecae Harvardianae Cantabrigiae Nov-Anglorum, which was published in 1790. It was printed by Thomas and Jonathan Fleet and included tracts, which had previously been cataloged separately. Included are eight copies of this printed volume, in varying states. Several of these copies of the Catalogus Bibliothecae have been interleaved and contain additions of books added to the library as late as 1822, as well as annotations to the printed entries. Several of the copies were apparently used by a library committee active in the 1820s. Information about each of these eight copies is provided in the following list.