Records of books spared from 1764 Harvard Hall fire and subsequent gifts and benefactions, 1764-1778.

ArchivalResource

Records of books spared from 1764 Harvard Hall fire and subsequent gifts and benefactions, 1764-1778.

On the night of January 24, 1764, a devastating fire destroyed Harvard Hall, and with it Harvard College's collection of scientific instruments ("philosophical apparatus") and most of the books in its library. In the aftermath of the fire, librarians compiled lists of books which were in circulation and thus spared from the fire. They also kept lists of the many gifts and benefactions, large and small, which poured in from individuals and organizations to assist in the rebuilding of the library and apparatus. This collection contains those lists of spared books and lists of gifts and benefactions.

.65 cubic feet (1 document box and 7 oversize folders)

Information

SNAC Resource ID: 7997385

Harvard University Archives.

Related Entities

There are 3 Entities related to this resource.

Harvard college library

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6s28v8m (person)

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...

Harvard University

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w64n9x97 (person)

Harvard College was founded by a vote of the Great and General Court of Massachusetts on October 28, 1636 that allocated “400£ towards a schoale or colledge.” Subsequent legislative acts established the Board of Overseers, but it was the Charter of 1650 that created the Harvard Corporation as the College's primary governing board and defined its composition and authority. The College Charter became a contentious target for College officials, the Massachusetts Governor and General C...

Harvard College (1636-1780)

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6n914j1 (corporateBody)

Samuel Mather (1677-1746) was a member of a prominent Connecticut family. He was born in Branford, Connecticut in 1677; his parents were the Reverend Samuel and Hannah (Treat) Mather. When Samuel was four, his family moved to Windsor, Connecticut. He attended Harvard College, receiving an A.B. in 1698 and an A.M. in 1701. He began studying medicine in 1698 and by 1702 he was admitted "to be a Practitioner of Physick and Chyrurgy." He was quickly successful, and in 1710 was appointed a surgeon to...