Lists of books donated by Thomas Hollis, 1763-1787

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Lists of books donated by Thomas Hollis, 1763-1787

Thomas Hollis V (1720-1774), widely known as Thomas Hollis of Lincoln's Inn, was a very generous donor to the Harvard College Library, particularly in the wake of a 1764 fire in Harvard Hall which destroyed most of the library's books and scientific instruments. This collection contains lists of titles (books and pamphlets) which Hollis shipped from England to Harvard between 1763 and 1770, as well as a "catalogue" of books from Hollis compiled in 1787. While these lists are not comprehensive and represent only a fraction of Hollis's donations to Harvard, they illustrate not only his extreme generosity but also the books he considered vital in shaping the intellects and political beliefs of young men in colonial New England.

.26 cubic feet; (1 half document box)

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SNAC Resource ID: 6385385

Harvard University Archives.

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Harvard college library

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The Harvard College Library used ledgers to record the loans of books from the library's collection during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The presence of what appear to be call-slips from 1823 to 1826 and the lack of ledgers for this period is unaccounted for in the literature cited in the bibliography. Late in the nineteenth century, librarians recognized that the ledger system could not provide the flexibility needed to control large collections. At the Harvard College L...