Gifts to University Library

The Library has received from the parents and from a number of friends of the late Arthur S. Dixey, A. B. 1902, the sum of $1,500, to be spent for books as a memorial to Mr. Dixey in the College Library. It is required that the sum shall be spent within five years, and that the books bought shall be French works of or about literature, but that current fiction and drama and philological works shall be excluded. A number of rare and early editions of French authors have already been bought with the gift, and the balance will be spent in the same way, reserving a portion for a remarkable collection of works relating to Rousseau which has lately been offered for sale. Mrs. Dixey will give a book-plate to be inserted in the books.

From Mrs. John Markoe, of Philadelphia, the Library has received a gift of $50, to be spent for books on the Italian Risorgimento. The money will be spent through Mr. H. N. Gay, of Rome, Curator of Italian History in the College Library, through whose efforts the Library's collection in this department has been already remarkably enriched.

A precious and interesting volume of early New England tracts and sermons has been given to the Library by Mr. Alfred Mitchell, of New London, Connecticut. Of the seventeen pamphlets contained in the volume, six were printed in Cambridge, between 1667 and 1682, and eight in Boston, between 1678 and 1686. Among the authors were three Presidents of Harvard College--Leonard Hoar, Urian Oakes, and Increase Mather, as well as Samuel Willard, who bore the title of Vice-President from 1700 to 1707. Five of them were, at one time or another, Boston ministers,--John Cotton, Samuel Mather, Increase Mather, Thomas Thacher, and Samuel Willard,--while Thomas Shepard and Urian Oakes were settled in Cambridge, Hugh Peters in Salem, Richard Mather in Dorchester, and William Adams in Dedham. Seven of the authors were graduates of Harvard College; namely, Samuel Mather, 1643; Urian Oakes, 1649; Leonard Hoar, 1650; Increase Mather and Eleazar Mather, 1656; Samuel Willard, 1659; and William Adams, 1671. Six of them were also Fellows of the College at different times.

Several of the pamphlets bear the autograph of William Adams, who graduated from the College in 1671, and was afterwards settled in Dedham, where he died in 1685. An inscription on the pamphlet, "God's Terrible Voice in the City of London, wherein you have the Narration of the Two late dreadful Judgements of Plague and Fire inflicted by the Lord upon that City," shows that it was bought of a printer. Samuel Green, February 29, 1667, at which time Adams was a Freshman in College. The volume was bound in its present form by William Adams's son, Eliphalet Adams (H. C. 1694), who was ordained pastor of the First Church of New London about 1708. At his death his library was bought by Nathaniel Shaw, a wealthy parishioner, from whom if passed through his granddaughter. Polly Shaw, to her husband, Ephraim Woodbridge, the seventh pastor of the same church. Mr. Mitchell, who gives the book to the Harvard Library, is a great-grandson of Ephraim Wood-bridge. It would probably be difficult to find in the College Library another volume containing so many early New England publications of extreme rarity.