Note and commonplace book of Henry Wilson Archer, 1830-1832.

Date:

1797-1851

Description:

This collection consists of notebooks kept by three members of the Archer family between 1797 and 1851. 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 Also in this section is a transcription of 'The Union College Dunciad,' a (probably unpublished) volume of satirical verse written in Schenectady in 1830.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.; The Archer family was a prominent and politically active family of medical doctors based in Harford County, Maryland. John Archer was born in Maryland in 1741 and (due to the alphabetical antecedence of his last name) was the first person to receive a medical diploma in North America, which he earned from the College of Philadelphia (later the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania) in 1768. His son, John Archer Jr. (1777-1850) also attended medical school at the University of Pennsylvania, graduating in 1798. J. Archer Jr. returned to Maryland after earning his degree and served as a surgeon of the Maryland militia in the War of 1812. Henry Wilson Archer (1813-1887) was the son of John Archer Jr. Another graduate of the medical school of the University of Pennsylvania, H. Archer lived in Harford County and married Mary Elizabeth Walker in 1849. The final volume in the collection is an account book created by Robert Harris Archer. Three individuals named Robert Harris Archer (brother of (1775-1857 or 1858), nephew of (1813-1883), or son of (1820-1878) John Archer, Jr.) may have been the account book's author.

Language:

English

Resource Type:

Manuscript

Physical Description:

1 box (.2 linear foot)

Personal Name:

Archer, John, 1777-1830.; Archer, Henry Wilson, 1813-1887.; Barton, Benjamin Smith, 1766-1815.

Corporate Name:

University of Pennsylvania. School of Medicine.

Rights:

http://rightsstatements.org/page/NoC-US/1.0/?

Physical Location:

Ms. Coll. 1120