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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
Medical recipes, circa 1737. B MS Misc., Countway Library of Medicine.
Contains medicinal recipes and directions for administering them, written in various hands, for illnesses including consumption, colic, and ague, in circa 1737. There are also instructions for compounding syrup of snails and for treating a rabies bite.
Newbury (Mass.), Selectmen. Vote of the Selectmen of Newbury (Mass.) regarding smallpox inoculation, 1773 November. B MS Misc., Countway Library of Medicine.
Manuscript recording a vote of the Newbury, Massachusetts, selectmen to "take any measures to prevent" smallpox inoculation from occurring at the house of Captain Moses Little (1724-1798) or "elsewhere" in the town, dated November 1773.
Phelps, Henry, 1766-1852. Botanical Memorandum of Henry Phelps, 1790. B MS Misc., Countway Library of Medicine.
Diary entries containing observations on and properties of local wildflowers, presumably near Gloucester, Massachusetts, written by Dr. Henry Phelps (1766-1852). The entry on geranium maculatum notes that particular plant is "powerfully astringent," and when used in conjunction with the plant...
Collaboration is restricted.
Phelps, Henry, 1766-1852. Extracts from a Treatise on lying in women & their Management by Charles White. B MS Misc., Countway Library of Medicine.
Undated manuscript with notes on fevers from a 1785 work on obstetrics by Dr. Charles White (1728-1813), written by Gloucester, Massachusetts, physician Henry Phelps (1766-1852). There are extracts on causes, symptoms, treatment and prevention of puerperal fever (fever associated with...
Stearns, Samuel, 1747-1809. Medical notebook of Samuel Stearns, circa 1773. H MS b1.1, Countway Library of Medicine.
Notebook containing descriptions of various diseases and medical conditions and recommended treatments collected by New England physician Samuel Stearns (1747-1809) in circa 1773. There are entries in alphabetical order including instructions on preventing abortion (miscarriage), setting...
Suffolk Medical Society. Records, 1785-1789 (inclusive). B MS c76.4, Countway Library of Medicine.
The Suffolk Medical Society records, 1785-1789 (inclusive), consist of: a 1785 manuscript proposing the formation of the society; 1788-1789 record of meetings; 1787-1788 records of transactions of a council of the society; records of votes and proceedings dated from 1785 to 1789; several...
Collaboration is restricted.
Throckmorton, Joseph. Petition to the Governor of the Province of New Jersey, undated. B MS Misc., Countway Library of Medicine.
Petition to New Jersey Governor William Franklin (1729-1813) requesting the establishment of medical professional standards to reduce the number of fraudulent and untrained doctors. The undated document was likely composed in the late 1760s or early 1770s and is signed by five men from Monmouth...
Warren, John. Lectures upon anatomy :.
Volume containing lecture notes of Harvard Medical School Professor John Warren (1753-1815) beginning on 10 December 1783 for the first course in anatomy he taught. The lectures were delivered in Harvard Yard, probably in Holden Chapel. Warren offers an overview of the history of medicine and...
Collaboration is restricted.
Waterhouse, Benjamin, 1754-1846. Diary of diseases then at St. Thomas’s Hospital, London, 1775. B MS b10.3, Countway Library of Medicine.
Notebook contains kept by Benjamin Waterhouse (1754-1846) while he was attending medical lectures and studying at St. Thomas's Hospital in London, England, in 1775. Waterhouse's notes include lists of symptoms to be attended to in all cases, such as checking the pulse, eyes, tongue, and urine,...
Collaboration is restricted.
Waterhouse, Benjamin, 1754-1846. Letter book of Benjamin Waterhouse, 1790-1834 (inclusive). H MS b16.1, Countway Library of Medicine.
Letter book containing fragments of correspondence and essays written by Benjamin Waterhouse (1754-1846) between 1790 and the mid 1830s. The correspondence was mainly addressed to United States Treasury Secretary Albert Gallatin concerning Waterhouse's position as superintendent of the United...
Collaboration is restricted.