Corporation papers, 1st series, supplements to the Harvard College Papers, Volumes 3-7
Overview
At a special meeting of the Harvard Corporation on February 6, 1850, the President and Fellows voted to have all manuscript papers related to the history of the College and College affairs identified, arranged, and bound. The first series of the Harvard College Papers comprises eleven volumes of historical and administrative records dating back as early as the mid-1600s arranged in chronological order. Papers that were accidentally overlooked, or newly discovered or received, were added later as supplements. This collection, dated 1785-1826, supplements Volumes 3-7 of the College Papers and includes financial and legal records, correspondence, memoranda, and petitions related to Harvard's support of missionary work with Native Americans, the College lottery, bequests and land grants, landlord-tenant arrangements on Harvard property, and construction of Stoughton Hall, as well as student bills and accounts pertaining to ordering and publishing books.
Dates
- Creation: 1785-1826
Creator
- Harvard University. Corporation (Organization)
Researcher Access
Corporation papers, 1st series, supplements to the Harvard College Papers, Volumes 3-7, is closed for research use due to the collection's fragile condition.
Positive microfilm of the supplements to the Harvard College Papers, 1st series (UAI I.5.131.5) is available for research use.
Extent
1 cubic feet (4 legal document boxes, 1 flat box)The supplements to the Harvard College Papers, Volumes 3-7, dated 1785-1826, consist of two volumes of original and duplicate administrative records and correspondence relating to the history of the College and College affairs, arranged chronologically. The collection dates from the tenures of presidents Joseph Willard (1781-1804), Samuel Webber (1806-1810), and John Thornton Kirkland (1810-1828), and treasurers Ebenezer Storer (1777-1807), Jonathan Jackson (1807-1810), and John Davis (1810-1827).
Volume 1 supplements College Papers, Volumes 3-4, 1785-1805, and contains accounts of Harvard with missionaries to Native American tribes; records related to the College lottery, and use of proceeds to buy an orrery and build Stoughton Hall, including bills from multiple laborers involved in the construction; accounts of land granted to Harvard by the Massachusetts General Court; accounts and bills of the College Steward; copies of votes by the Harvard Corporation; and invoices of books purchased by Harvard.
Volume 2 supplements College Papers, Volumes 5-7, 1805-1819, also contains financial records pertaining to the construction of Stoughton Hall, as well as votes, memoranda, and communications by the Corporation and the Board of Overseers with the General Court about land and laws changing the makeup of the Board; subscription requests; petitions; deeds and extracts or copies of wills from Harvard benefactors; and papers related to the lease of Waltham Farm.
Volume 2 additionally contains a number of single items and discrete groupings of documents that do not follow chronological order and date through 1826. These include records of the Webb Estate, dated 1810-1826, the Boylston bequest, dated 1810-1822, and Bowdoin Prizes, dated 1814-1817; correspondence of Christopher Gore, dated 1815-1819; and some accounts of future Harvard President Edward Everett during his time as a professor, dated 1815-1825.
Both volumes include legal and financial records related to publication of a two-volume mathematics book compiled by Hollis Professor of Mathematics and Natural Philosophy (and future Harvard president) Samuel Webber (1759-1810; Harvard AB 1784).
Items in Volume 1 were numbered 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; item numbers in Volume 2 were assigned by the archivist as part of this project. Some items were previously removed to other collections or for exhibitions, and when known, these are noted in the inventory.
During conservation treatment in 2018, the records were removed from the volumes, foldered, and placed in boxes in their original order.
Historical Note
At a special meeting of the Harvard Corporation on February 6, 1850, the President and Fellows voted that "the President cause to be examined and arranged all the manuscript papers relating to the College, whether records, letters, or other papers now in Gore Hall or other buildings of the University, and procure such as are worthy of preservation to be substantially bound." James W. Harris, an assistant in the Library who also served as an assistant to President Jared Sparks, was assigned the task of arranging and indexing the papers. Historical and administrative records dating back as early as the mid-1600s were gathered together and arranged in chronological order in eleven bound volumes, which were then placed in the Library. This collection is known as Harvard University. Corporation. Harvard College Papers, 1st series, 1636-1825, 1831. A second series of Harvard College Papers covers the years 1826 to 1863.
After 1850, historical records continued to be collected and arranged on an intermittent basis. Papers that were accidentally overlooked, or newly discovered or received, were added later as supplements. Two supplementary volumes, corresponding to the Harvard College Papers, Volumes 1 and 2, were prepared by Keeper of the Archives William Garrott Brown (1868-1913) in the late 1890s, while he was creating a calendar, or descriptive inventory, of the College Papers.
Brown, who worked under Harvard Librarian Justin Winsor (1877-1897) numbered each of the documents in the first five volumes of the College Papers, which he used to assemble the calendar. The inventory also lists the items in the supplements to Volumes 1-4.
William Coolidge Lane (1859-1931; Harvard AB 1881), Librarian of Harvard from 1898 to 1928, prepared two additional supplementary volumes to the College Papers, Volumes 3-4 and 5-7, which comprise this collection and are dated from 1785 to 1826. Since Brown numbered the first volume (corresponding to College Papers, Volumes 3-4), he may have initiated or assisted with the compilation. Documents in the second volume (corresponding to College Papers, Volumes 5-7) were not numbered.
Arrangement
The records are arranged in two series:
- Corporation papers, 1st series, supplements to the Harvard College Papers, Volumes, 3-4, 1785-1805
- Corporation papers, 1st series, supplements to the Harvard College Papers, Volumes, 5-7, 1805-1826
Separated Material
These items were originally contained within the collection and are described in the volumes' indexes, but were removed from the collection at an unknown date. Their current location, when known, is noted in the list below.
Items removed from Volume 1
- Item 20: An account of sundry articles bought for the apparatus of Harvard College in 1787 - by S[amuel] Williams. Can be found in Harvard University. Corporation. Corporation papers, 1st series, supplements to the Harvard College Papers, circa 1650-1828:
http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.ARCH:hua09012 - Item 24: An account of sundry articles bought for the apparatus of Harvard College in 1788 - by S[amuel] Williams. Can be found in Harvard University. Corporation. Corporation papers, 1st series, supplements to the Harvard College Papers, circa 1650-1828:
http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.ARCH:hua09012 - Item 49: Bond of James Cowing, shoemaker, and Timothy Doty...for the payment of the bills and dues of David Cowing to Harvard College, November 16, 1785. Can be found in Harvard University. Steward. Early records of the Steward, 1649-1812:
http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.ARCH:hua19010 - Item 113: Memoranda of salaries and expenditures of Harvard College from 1795-1802, dated January 1, 1802.
- Item 122: Draft of a diploma conferring an honorary Master of Arts to Nathaniel Bowditch, August 25, 1802.
- Item 127: Wrapper found on a bundle of papers marked "accounts for new college from July 1, 1804 to June 20, 1805."
Inventory update
This document last updated 2021 February 24.
Processing Information
This finding aid was created by Brooke McManus in January 2018.
Preservation and description of the Corporation papers, 1st series, supplements to the Harvard College Papers, Volumes 3-7, were supported by the Colonial North America at Harvard Library Project.
Titles were assigned by the archivist, unless otherwise noted.
Subject
- Lane, William Coolidge, 1859-1931 (Person)
- Webb, Henry, 1601-1660 (Person)
- Harvard University -- Relations with Massachusetts (Organization)
- Harvard University. Board of Overseers (Organization)
- Harvard University. Treasurer (Organization)
- Stoughton Hall (Cambridge, Mass.) -- Design and construction (Organization)
- Jackson, Jonathan, 1743-1810 (Person)
- Kirkland, John Thornton, 1770-1840 (Person)
- Webber, Samuel, 1759-1810 (Person)
- Gore, Christopher, 1758-1827 (Person)
- Waterhouse, Benjamin, 1754-1846 (Person)
- Hawley, Gideon, 1727-1807 (Person)
- Harvard College (1780- ) -- Bequests (Organization)
- Harvard University -- Finance -- Sources (Organization)
- Cyrus (Sloop) (Organization)
- Pope, Joseph, 1748-1826 (Person)
Creator
- Harvard University. Corporation (Organization)
- Title
- Harvard University. Corporation. Corporation papers, 1st series, supplements to the Harvard College Papers, Volumes 3-7, 1785-1826: an inventory
- Author
- Harvard University Archives
- Language of description
- und
- EAD ID
- hua10018
Repository Details
Part of the Harvard University Archives Repository
Holding nearly four centuries of materials, the Harvard University Archives is the principal repository for the institutional records of Harvard University and the personal archives of Harvard faculty, as well as collections related to students, alumni, Harvard-affiliates and other associated topics. The collections document the intellectual, cultural, administrative and social life of Harvard and the influence of the University as it emerged across the globe.
Pusey Library
Harvard Yard
Cambridge MA 02138 USA
(617) 495-2461
archives_reference@harvard.edu