Colonial North America: Houghton Library

About

Colonial North America at Harvard Library provides access to remarkable and wide-ranging materials digitized as part of an ongoing, multi-year project. When complete, the project will make available to the world approximately 650,000 digitized pages of all known archival and manuscript materials in the Harvard Library that relate to 17th- and 18th-century North America. Each item is connected to countless stories—of lives lived quietly and extravagantly, of encounters peaceful and volatile, and of places near and far – providing an opportunity to travel back in time, to rethink familiar stories, and to discover new ones.

Works

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Manning, William, 1747-1814. The key of libberty : shewing the cawses why a free government has always failed, & a reamidy against it, adresed to the republicans, farmers, mecanicks & labourers in America / by a labourer : manuscript, 1797-1798. MS Am

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40 pages: 2% complete (8% transcribed, 5% needs review)

Massachusetts. Governor (1741-1757 : Shirley). Military commission : manuscript, 1756 Feb. 18. MS Am 832. Houghton Library, Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass.

Commission appointing Moses Deshon as major of a foot regiment under Col. Joseph Thatcher.

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2 pages: 0% complete (0% transcribed)

Morton, Charles, 1627-1698. Naturall phylosophy. A system of physicks : manuscript, 1706. MS Am 2523. Houghton Library, Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass.

History note: Morton taught at Harvard College from 1686 until his death in 1698. His Compendium Physicae was used as a textbook in natural philosophy at Harvard and Yale. Summary: Letter from Arthur O. Norton (ca. 1925), concerning this and other Phillips Bradley notebooks, moved to...

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192 pages: 5% complete (14% transcribed, 9% needs review)

Parsons, Theodore, 1751-1779. Forensic dispute between Theodore Parsons & Eliphalet Pearson : manuscript, 1773. MS Am 1423. Houghton Library, Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass.

Concerns the legality of slavery. A forensic dispute on the legality of enslaving the Africans, 1773

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52 pages: 19% complete (23% transcribed, 4% needs review)

Portlock, Nathaniel, 1748?-1817. Extracts from the record of a voyage to the N. W. coast of America : in the ships "King George" and "Queen Charlotte" in the years 1786, 1787, & 1788 : manuscript, [ca. 1788]. MS Eng 524. Houghton Library, Harvard

Excerpts from the captain's log from two voyages to Alaska with a description of Cook Inlet; the vegetation, specifically the number and oddity of the trees; native people; interaction with Russian settlers; and other events and observations. The latitude coordinate is given for some sites.

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35 pages: 45% complete (77% transcribed, 31% needs review)

Sâgean, Mathieu. Relation des avantures de Mathieu Sagean Canadien et de ses voyages et courses tam à la Louisiane, que sur les Costes d'Affrique, dans les Indes orientales et occidentales, et à la Chine : manuscript, [1701?]. MS Can 54. Houghton Library,

Summary: The original or a copy of the account dictated by Sâgean at Brest, Apr. 1701, purporting to cover his travels from ca. 1680 to 1699. The discoveries set forth in the account are regarded as fabricated.

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136 pages: 15% complete (1% translated)

Sparks, Jared, 1789-1866, collector. Jared Sparks collection of documents concerning the American Revolution, 1740-1866. Ternay, Charles Louis d'Arsac de, 1722-1780. A.L.s. to [George Washington]; [n.p.] 31 Jul 1780. MS Sparks 49.3 (89). Houghton Library,

Collection Summary: Documents copied or collected by Jared Sparks in the course of his editorial and historical work; the focus of the collection is the American Revolution. Includes letters and documents of John Armstrong, Benedict Arnold, William Ellery, Alexander Hamilton, Benjamin...

3 pages: 100% complete (100% translated, 67% needs review)

Stirke, Henry. Diary of the campaign for Québec : manuscript, 1758-1760. MS Can 24. Houghton Library, Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass.

Summary: An account of the military campaigns, including the capture of Québec, under Major-Gen. James Wolfe. With three manuscript plans, showing the line of battle before Louisburg and two plans of encampments.

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182 pages: 12% complete (4% translated)

Thayer, Ebenezer, 1734-1792. Sermons : manuscript, 1788-1791. MS Am 828. Houghton Library, Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass.

Summary: Nine sermons concerning Revelations 7, Hebrews 7, Psalms 174, Matthew 16, and other chapters, delivered chiefly at Hampton, New Hampshire. Includes an epitaph in memory of Thayer.

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118 pages: 12% complete (49% transcribed, 36% needs review)

Villanueva y Chavarri, Francisco Xavier. Breve resumen y noticia del descubrimiento de la Nueva-España : demarcarion y descripcion de aquellas provincias divididas en las cinco Audiencias que la governan, estado de sus iglesias, sus ereciones, noti[ci]a

Summary: v. 1: Concerns the discovery of New Spain, including descriptions of Mexico, Florida, Cuba, Puerto Rico, Venezuela, Santo Domingo; with particular attention given to church construction in those places and the role of the Catholic Church in New Spain.

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316 pages: 1% complete (1% translated)

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