1775-1814

1775

The Harvard University Archives holds an invoice from “Barclay’s” (possibly Andrew Barclay, a Boston bookbinder) for binding and covering a number of books in calf and sheepskin. Total cost: £13:2:7.14

 

1775

The Provincial Congress commandeered the buildings of Harvard College as quarters for the continental army. Samuel Phillips, Jr. described packing books for war- time storage during the Battle of Bunker Hill: “Amid all the terrors of battle I was so busily engaged in Harvard Library that I never even heard of the engagement (I mean the siege) until it was completed.” In June 1775, the books were moved to Andover and subsequently to Concord, where the library was temporarily located in a private home. The Corporation also voted to send the College’s fire engine to Concord. After the British evacuated Boston in March 1776, the Provincial Congress granted Harvard permission to return to Cambridge.15

1793

The salary paid to the Harvard Librarian increased, on the condition that he or a staff member would open the library during vacations.16

1790s-1810's

Borrowing privileges were gradually expanded to include sophomores and freshmen. Students might borrow books from the library on specific days of the month, but did not have access to the entire library collection.17

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14 Harvard University. Records of the Harvard University Library. Records relating to the activities of the Library. Binding papers 1775-1928. UA.III.50.15.17.3pf. Box 1. Harvard University Archives. Courtesy of the Harvard University Archives.

 

15 Massachusetts Daughters of the American Revolution, An Historic Guide to Cambridge (Cambridge: 1907), 22; Potter and Bolton, The Librarians of Harvard College, 30; Morison, Three Centuries of Harvard, 1636-1936, 147-150; Percy W. Brown, “The Sojourn of Harvard College in Concord,” The Harvard Graduates’ Magazine 27 (1918-1919): 497-509.

 

16 Potter and Bolton, The Librarians of Harvard College, 32-33.

 

17 Robert W. Lovett, “Harvard College and the Supply of Textbooks,” Harvard Library Bulletin 4, no. 1 (1950): 118; Carpenter, The First 350 Years of the Harvard University Library, 46-47.