Corporation papers, 1st series, supplements to the Harvard College Papers, Volumes 3-4, 1785-1805

Volume 1 contains duplicate and original papers, which supplement Harvard College Papers, Volumes 3-4, 1785-1805, including accounts of missionaries to Native Americans, among them Gideon Hawley (1727-1807) and Stephen Badger (1726-1803), who were paid by the College; documents related to land grants by the Massachusetts General Court; and accounts and oaths pertaining to the College lottery to fund purchase of an orrery created by Boston clockmaker Joseph Pope (1750-1826). Additionally contains extracts and copies of wills and correspondence related to donations and bequests. There is a small amount of correspondence with Harvard Medical School founding faculty member Benjamin Waterhouse (1754-1846) regarding his resignation and reinstatement as Professor of the Theory & Practice of Physic, a position in which he ultimately served from 1783 to 1812. There are accounts of various laborers involved in the construction of the New College (Stoughton Hall). A number of bills and accounts were received and settled by Caleb Gannett (1745-1818; Harvard AB 1763), the College Steward from 1779 to 1818. In addition, there are records related to the publication by the College of a two-volume mathematics text compiled by Hollis Professor of Mathematics and Natural Philosophy Samuel Webber, who transferred copyright to the Corporation. Mathematics compiled from the best authors, and intended to be the text book of the course of private lectures on these sciences in the University in Cambridge was published by Boston printers Thomas & Andrews in 1801.

Item numbers were assigned by Keeper of the Archives William Garrott Brown in the late 1890s while he was compiling a descriptive inventory of the College Papers, 1st series. Items 1-76 are supplements to College Papers Volume 3; items 77-189 are supplements to Volume 4.