Skip to main content

Commonplace books.

 Subject
Subject Source: Library of Congress Subject Headings
Scope Note: The Greenwood encyclopedia of American poets and poetry, 2006: Commonplace book; a notebook in which the keeper enters textual memorabilia, usually by hand. The items recorded in the books are called "commonplaces"; commonplaces include maxims, excerpts from literature or philosophy, bits of scientific data, excerpts from friends' letters or other writing, and records of oral conversations; often includes commentary by its keeper; served many functions: scrapbooks, containers for memories; pedagogical tools in early modern schools; sites of self-improvement

Found in 4 Collections and/or Records:

Susan Counce Hunt papers, 1793-1835.

 Collection
Identifier: MS1111
Scope and Contents

This collection contains diaries (journals), extracts from sermons, readings, and letters from 1793-1835. Contained in 8 handmade books. One letter contains an essay entitled "On the Millenium" which mentions Jonathan Edwards. One journal is an arithmatic book attributed to "Sukey Counce Hunt." Also contains correspondence between the author's parents, Mary (Counce) Hunt and Daniel Hunt, which chronicles life in Boston during British occupation, and a diary of Mary Hunt's.

Dates: 1793-1835

Thomas Weld commonplace book, 1723.

 Collection
Identifier: MS0997
Abstract Thomas Weld was born in November, 1702, in Roxbury, Massachusetts. He graduated from Harvard University in 1723. Weld became the minister in Upton, Massachusetts, in 1735 and was later dismissed in 1743. In 1745 he became one of two ministers in Middleboro, Massachusetts, and was later dismissed in 1743. During the French and Indian War Weld joined the army as a chaplain; he died during the war. This collection contain a commonplace book that was created during Thomas Weld's time at Harvard...
Dates: 1723

Timothy Dickinson papers, 1809, undated.

 Collection
Identifier: MS0066
Abstract Timothy Dickinson was born on June 25, 1761 in Amherst, Massachusetts. Dickinson joined the Continental Army in 1777 and was discharged in 1779. He graduated from Dartmouth in 1785 and was ordained as the minister at Holliston, Massachusetts on February 18, 1789. He remained minister there until his death on July 6, 1813. This collection contains two items written by Timothy Dickinson. The first is a short biography which recounts his time in the Continental Army and the second is a...
Dates: 1809