This work was translated by Peter S. Du Ponceau from Vater's "Untersuchungen über Amerikas Bevölkerung aus dem alten Kontinente" (Leipzig, 1810). It was Du Ponceau's opinion that Vater was moved to write this book by Benjamin Smith Barton's "New Views of the Origin of the Tribes and Nations of America," which Vater often quoted. Contains bibliographical notes.

The anonymous compiler of the Vocabulaire Chacta, ca.1820, gathered 149 elementary words in the Choctaw language with French equivalents, the basic numerals, and six "useful" (if not always appropriate) phrases. Arranged alphabetically by French. The notebook was donated to the American Philosophical Society by Peter Stephen Du Ponceau in 1827.

In October 1719, the Yearly Meeting of the Society of Friends for Philadelphia and the Jersies reached consensus on a "book of discipline" governing the "establishment and order of meetings." The regulations covered both the conduct of the Quarterly and Monthly Meetings and the personal comportment of individual members, refining the bureaucratic structure of the meetings and laying out the powers of Overseers and other officials. It touches upon marriage (mandating endogamy), burial, and attendance at meetings, and cautions Friends to plainness of speech and dress, drinking, smoking, backbiting, and gaming. This version of the Book of Discipline is a manuscript copy made for the American Philosophical Society in 1820 "from and antient Copy in the possession of Timothy Matlack, Esqr."

A grammar, based on a Latin model. Prepared from original then in Library of United Brethren, Bethlehem. It is a description of the Delaware language and lists words and their corresponding meanings.

This item contains printed sheets pasted into a volume, with manuscript notes by Peter Stephen Du Ponceau.

This collection consists almost entirely of letters, mostly written by Jefferson, to various people. The largest portion of the letters are from Jefferson to Louis Hue Girardin concerning the latter's work in completing The history of Virginia: from its first settlement to the present day, Volume 4 . Of particular interest is Jefferson's notes on his colleges' role in that history, including the plot to establish a dictator of Virginia. The letters to Girardin also include discussions of plants, the building of the University of Virginia, and books.

Consists of extracts from rare published works on American Indian, African, and Asian languages, together with the notes and comments of Du Ponceau; linguistic essays, vocabulary lists (mostly of numerals) for North, Middle, and South American languages; materials on Chinese, Pacific, Asian, and African languages; notes on the languages of the Tartars, Arabs, Greeks, Polynesians, and others. Included are copies of several manuscripts as well as copies of two letters of Wilhelm von Humboldt. One of them is dated Berlin, April 9, 1822; L. 6p. In French. Exchange of publications [with the APS?]. Indian languages. Languages. Refers to A.von Humboldt, Heckewelder, Zeisberger, Eliot and Vater. See vol.5, 19-24. Important for references to the Historical and Literary Committee of the APS; to Du Ponceau's publications on Delaware, Chippewa, and Chinese; and to his correspondence with philologists Adelung, Heckewelder, Humboldt, Gallatin, and Vater.

Copies of 82 vocabularies representing 73 languages with notes and additions made by Du Ponceau and Albert Gallatin. Vocabularies for South American languages are copied from rare printed sources, while North American vocabularies are from both printed and manuscript sources. The first 23 pages of the volume are the Continuance Docket of the Court of Common Pleas, Philadelphia County, 1783-1786. Cases noted are those involving Stephen Dutilh, Samuel Garrigues, John Girard, John Holker, Charles J. de Longchamps, and Claude P. Raguet.

This manuscript copy contains dictionaries of nine Indian vocabularies, such as Aztec, Algonkin, and Huron, and was taken from Reland's "Dissertationum miscellanearum pars tertia" (Utrecht, 1708). [Vocabularies compiled from printed sources,of South and North American dialects: Brasilica (1590,1595,1648); Chilensis (1647); Peruana, Poconziae [or Poconomica, Guatemala and Honduras]; Caraibica [Antilles], 1658; Mexicana [Otomitica, Chontalica, Zoquina, Cascan, Niciecana, Chicemeca dialects mentioned]; Virginiana (1966 [Eliot] 1685 [Mather], Algonkina [1703 La Hontan] Huramica (German-Huron vocabulary not included; 1822.]

The Thomas Jefferson papers contain a large number of correspondence both to and from Jefferson, as well as various other material related to American Revolutionary War and Early Republic. Includes correspondence with Patrick Henry, Charles Willson Peale, Richard Henry Lee, Horatio Gates, David Rittenhouse, Robert Patterson

A product of the distinctive culture of reform in antebellum Philadelphia, William Parker Foulke was the scion of the old elite who put a conservative stamp on social change. Trained as an attorney, Foulke spent much of his adult life engaging his deep amateur interest in natural history and mental philosophy and devoting himself to a variety of civic and philanthropic causes, including the colonization of formerly enslaved persons, penal reform, and cultural institutions in his native Philadelphia. The Foulke Papers are the product of the diverse social and intellectual interests of the Philadelphia attorney and philanthropist William Parker Foulke. Consisting primarily of correspondence, notes, and essays, the collection touches on Foulke's many interests. The collection includes numerous lectures delivered by Foulke along with material on the Lancaster County Prison, New York Prison Association, and the Philadelphia Society For Alleviating the Miseries of Public Prisons; notebooks concerning prisons and prisoners, including a 1846-1852 diary, and a listing of prisoners, their race, age, crime, sentence, and observations; a diary concerning the American Colonization Society (1852); a copy of an arctic diary (1853-1854) by John Wall Wilson, in the hand of Isaac Israel Hayes, which recounts much of the journey aboard the brig Advance, commanded by Elisha Kent Kane. There is also a list of buildings (1820-1841) designed by John Haviland, and material on the American Academy of Music, Philadelphia.