Collections : [University of Michigan William L. Clements Library]

This arithmetic copybook was compiled by an anonymous student in the nineteenth century. It includes rules and examples for addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division, as well as practical examples relating to money and weights and measures.

This currently unidentified student's cypher book contains mathematical rules and examples largely in the service of commerce. Entries relate to the addition of money, addition of Troy weight, addition of dry measure, subtraction, a numeration table, a multiplication table, the Golden Rule (i.e. the rule of three), and similar concepts. Currency in this volume is almost exclusively British coinage, but at least one problem references conversion of British pounds into the (newly created) U.S. dollar. The covers of the volume are (apparently re-used) canvas, possibly sailcloth. The cypher book was owned by the Higgins family of Cape Cod, Massachusetts, and it contains names of Higgins family members, but the author is yet undetermined.