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This collection contains 7 school notebooks used by members of the Gilbert and Rupley families of Mercersburg, Pennsylvania, to practice penmanship and mathematics. Other items include poetry, a cover sheet, and loose pages from an account book.

This collection contains 7 school notebooks used by members of the Gilbert and Rupley families of Mercersburg, Pennsylvania, to practice penmanship and mathematics. The collection also includes 7 pages of poetry, 1 cover sheet, and 14 loose pages from an account book.

Sally Gilbert began her 2 penmanship books on January 10 and February 24, 1813, and practiced her writing by copying brief proverbs, short poems, and examples of financial records, such as receipts. The second volume contains 2 longer poems, along with the penmanship exercises. The cover of each book bears a printed illustration, including a man falling off of a sitting horse ("How to Travel Upon Two Legs in a Frost") and a game of "Dutch Nine [Pi]ns."

George Rupley maintained 2 schoolbooks on arithmetic in 1828 and 1829, and copied problems involving compound addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division, as well as problems involving fractions. His notebooks also include some penmanship exercises and poetry, as well as a child's drawing of a man outside a house.

Frederick A. Rupley's book (1831) concerns economic mathematics under the heading "Tare and Tret," and covers topics such as calculating interest and discounts. The book also contains some drawings of plants and includes 2 poems on its back page. Sarah Catharine Rupley's notebook (1840) addresses similar mathematical concepts, and contains sections on reduction, interest, compound interest, and vulgar fractions.

The final exercise book is undated and belonged to Rebecca Margaretta (or Margaret) Rupley in the early 19th century. Exercises consist of copied penmanship examples, often proverbs; Mary Ann Rupley's name also appears on its back page.

Of the collection's 7 loose pages of poetry, 1 is dedicated to Sally Gilbert (September 15, 1812), and 1 to Sarah Gilb[ert] from Henry Hoffman (September 2, 1814). One cover sheet is addressed to Henry Himmelrich of Germantown, Ohio. The collection includes a broadsheet: A New Song, Or, The Lamentable Death of Polly: Young Peopel [sic] Who Delight In Sin, I'll Tell You What Has Lately Been,--A Woman Who Was Young And Fair, Who Died In Sin And Sad Despair!

Approximately 14 pages from an account book (1813-1814) document sales of merchandise, including some accounts recording customers' payments. Though most customers paid in cash, at least one compensated for purchases by chopping wood. A woman named Betsy Gilbert was among the merchant's customers.

Between 1835 and 1839, Hart Hosley produced an exercise and commonplace book while attending the Canton Academy in Canton, New York, and while later living in Boston, Massachusetts. The bulk of the volume consists of a translation from French into English of François Fenelon's The Adventures of Telemachus, the Son of Ulysses. Selections of poetry, proverbs, songs, and mathematics problems comprise the rest of the volume. Pressed leaves appear throughout. The covers feature printed decorative paper (possibly wallpaper) of a woman playing a lute beside a dancing cherub.

This volume was owned by successive generations of the Hoyt family in Stamford, Connecticut, and Hudson, Michigan, in the 18th and 19th centuries. Its contents include military accounts from St. Johns, Newfoundland; arithmetic problems and solutions; and drawings of animals and natural scenes, including two hunters' encounter with a bear.

This book was owned by successive generations of the Hoyt family in Stamford, Connecticut, and Hudson, Michigan, in the 18th and 19th centuries. The front cover of the hide-bound volume bears the faint remnants of the English royal arms. Writing on the inside of the front cover indicates that the volume was owned by Jonah Hoyt (or Hait) before being presented to his grandson, Fred L. Hoyt, on his 21st birthday. The early pages include 7 pages of accounts for the receipt of military stores and provisions at St. Johns, Newfoundland, between September 1762 and August 1764. The section also contains a birth register regarding the children of Jonah and Anna Polmateer Hoyt.

The bulk of the volume is mathematical problems and solutions, including exercises related to multiplication, division, fractions and decimals, currency reduction, and the rule of three (cross-multiplication). Several measurement conversion tables, brief poems, penmanship exercises, and geometric line drawings are interspersed throughout this portion of the book, which also includes signatures by Jonah Hoyt and his son Lewis. Most of the poems are brief and humorous, with longer poems concerning a visit to London and the virtue of patience. Newspaper clippings regarding the death and funeral of George Washington, the wealth of Cornelius Vanderbilt, presidential election results from 1789 to 1872, and Ralph Waldo Emerson's poem "Boston" are laid and pasted into the volume. A few plants are also laid in, as well as a letter from T. Andrews to Mary Andrews about life in Ypsilanti, Michigan, in February 1837. Decorated cutouts made from colored paper are pasted into the volume.

Emery Hoyt and other family members created many drawings, which appear after the arithmetic problems. Two are colored: a partially colored view of a church resembling a castle and a reproduction of an engraving showing a waterfront scene (the original engraving is laid into the volume). Most of the remaining pictures are pencil drawings and sketches of wild animals, including woodland creatures such as squirrels and deer; farm animals such as horses, cattle, and pigs; and African animals such as elephants, an oryx, and rhinoceroses. Other scenes of note show two hunters during an encounter with a bear, with one of the hunters preparing to hit the bear with the butt of his rifle; a safari hunter beside an elephant; and cavalry officers stabbing and shooting Native Americans. Also included are an outline of the state of Maine and a sketch of a sailing ship.

This collection is made up of 2 volumes that Marianna Chandler Lanman composed while studying at Mrs. Rowson's Academy for Young Ladies in Boston, Massachusetts, around 1814. One concerns arithmetic, focusing on practical applications in bookkeeping, conversion, and monetary transactions; the other contains copied poems, calligraphic alphabets, and graphic illustrations.

This collection is made up of 2 volumes that Marianna Chandler Lanman composed while studying at Mrs. Rowson's Academy for Young Ladies in Boston, Massachusetts, around 1814. One concerns arithmetic, focusing on practical applications in bookkeeping, conversion, and monetary transactions; the other contains copied poems, calligraphic alphabets, and graphic illustrations. Lanman dedicated both volumes to her parents.

Lanman composed the first volume, entitled "Practical Arithmetic[:] Comprising All the Rules for Transacting Business" (10"x16", 60 pages), at Mrs. Rawson's Academy in 1814. Its sections, each labeled in calligraphy, concern mathematical operations, rules and theorems; weights and measures; and practical applications of mathematical principles. Many of the later pages concern subjects such as the calculation of simple and compound interest, the value of "federal money" against "lawful money" (state currencies), commission charges, and bookkeeping. The explanatory text is accompanied by finished exercises and problems. The volume also includes tables of weights and measures and an index.

The second volume, "Specimens of Penmanship" (16"x10", 23 pages), is undated. Lanman copied poetry and proverbs on the book's odd-numbered pages; most concern subjects such as happiness, rural living, and gratitude. The title of a poem on the "Pleasures of retired Life" is written on a drawing of a ribbon (p. 19). One poem, entitled "Virtue's Tears Embalm the Brave," is dedicated to the memory of American casualties of the War of 1812 (p. 21). The volume contains several drawings: a hermit in his home (p. 3), a bald eagle among patriotic decorations (p. 21), a sailing ship (p. 21), and a line drawing of a bird with the word "industry" in its feathers (p. 23). The volume also includes examples of cursive, German, and Old English alphabets.