Collection ID: 0002 | Metadata type: TEI | TEI XML | Data

Title

Archer family account books and notebooks

Authors

• Archer, Henry Wilson, 1813-1887
• Archer, John, 1777-1830

Call number

Ms. Coll. 1120
(3420 Walnut Street, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19104-6206, University of Pennsylvania, Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts)

Alternate identifiers

• bibid: 9967318843503681
• http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/923768720
• http://hdl.library.upenn.edu/1017/d/ead/upenn_rbml_PUSpMsColl1120 https://colenda.library.upenn.edu/catalog/81431-p3qr4nx31 https://colenda.library.upenn.edu/catalog/81431-p3m03z403 https://colenda.library.upenn.edu/catalog/81431-p3g73796q

Publisher

University of Pennsylvania

Origin

Date

1797-1851

Summary

This collection consists of notebooks kept by three members of the Archer family between 1797 and 1851. Two booklets of notes on materia medica lectures held at the University of Pennsylvania make up the first file in the collection. John Archer Jr. attended the lectures (delivered by Benjamin S. Barton, M.D., a Professor of Materia Medica, Botany and Natural History) in 1797 and 1798. Addressing what is now considered pharmacology, the booklets detail medical treatments for a number of diseases. The first volume of the set is concerned largely with the nutritional benefits of various foods and the categorization of medicines, whether as botanical or mineral astringents, tonics, emetics, stimulants, and the like. The second volume discusses the merits of different medicines (mostly plant-based) and lists viable treatments for a range of diseases. A note on the last page of the second volume suggests that there was a third booklet in this set of lecture notes. The second file in this collection is the commonplace book of Henry Archer, written between 1830 and 1832 in Harford County, Maryland. This book is roughly organized into four sections. The first section consists of notes on the history of Asia (based on a text by Charles Rollin), Rome (based on Edward Gibbon's The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire), Roman jurisprudence, and the feudal system in Scotland. The second section features shorter quotations taken from several sources including Don Juan, the poetry of Byron and Thomas Campbell, and The Young Duke, a novel by Benjamin Disraeli. Also in this section is a transcription of 'The Union College Dunciad,' a (probably unpublished) volume of satirical verse written in Schenectady in 1830. The notebook's third section is a list of the books that Archer read, sorted by category and year. Each book has a number next to it, perhaps denoting how many times it was read. This list is extended on the front inside cover of the notebook. The final section of the notebook is titled 'Questions for Debate,' and includes eleven questions about both historical and contemporary political issues. An account book kept by Robert Harris Archer from 1841 to 1851 is the third file in this series, and lists Archer's purchases of wheat. This book is, for the most part, well organized with the name of the wheat seller, price and amount of wheat, and date of purchase laid out consistently. A few pages, however, are filled with tally marks, calculations and miscellaneous notes and sketches, including two small drawings of houses labeled 'Baltimore' and 'Philadelphia.'

Extent

1 box (.2 linear foot)

Subjects topical

• Barton, Benjamin Smith,--1766-1815
• University of Pennsylvania--School of Medicine
• Medical education--United States
• Medicine

Genres

• Family histories
• Manuscripts, American--19th century
• Account books
• Commonplace books
• Lecture notes
• Notebooks

Licenses

• Text

  These images and the content of Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts Ms. Coll. 1120: Archer family account books and notebooks are free of known copyright restrictions and in the public domain. See the Creative Commons Public Domain Mark page for usage details, http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/.

  URL

  http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/

• Text

  Metadata is ©2021 University of Pennsylvania Libraries and licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License version 4.0 (CC-BY-4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode. For a description of the terms of use see the Creative Commons Deed https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.

  URL

  https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode