This commonplace book includes quotations, definitions, reflections, and anecdotes arranged alphabetically. There are some otherwise unrecorded anecdotes by Benjamin Franklin.

This commonplace book is filled mostly with poetry and quotations from printed materials.

Commonplace book reproduced from the original in the possession of Mrs. John Robinson, Cranford, N.J., 1975.

Having made his fortune as a goldsmith and silversmith, John Leacock (1729-1802) became one of Philadelphia's most energetic entrepreneurs in viticulture and a playwright and parodist in the cause of American Independence. Despite bearing the title, "Observations, Experiments etc. extracted from the Philosophical Transactions respecting farming, gardening, etc.," the notebook kept by the silversmith, viticulturist, and writer, John Leacock, is actually a combination of commonplace book, notebook, and receipt book. Consisting of 58 folio pages, the book contains a hodgepodge of entries reflecting Leacock's varied interests from 1768 through at least 1781, including not only material copied from other sources on viticulture, agriculture, engraving and etching, but medicinal and culinary receipts and two original poems, a "Song [of] the Stamp Act" and "A parody on the Tempest, by R. H. Esq." It also mentions diet drinks made by James Logan and Cadwallader Evans.

This commonplace book consists of brief writings and observations on agriculture, arts and manufactures, commerce, the army and navy, canals and roads, weights and measures, general politics, finance, and population. It includes a sketch of the Battle of Quebec groundworks and layout.

This volume contains medical notes by Wistar, including observations on yellow fever and arguments to prove its foreign origin, facts relative to the progress of the fever in 1797, the infection and death of Colonel Van Emburgh, the infection of the crew of the ship "Deborah" and of the Durham boat (1802), an account of the diseases which afflicted the family of James Hammar in Montgomery County (Pa.), facts relating to the typhus fever of 1812-1813, case histories (1796-1803), temperature chart (1758-1759, 1760), and a thermometrical journal (1760-1765) kept by Charles Norris and copied by Wistar from notes in possession of Joseph Parker Norris.

Commonplace book of Alexander James Dallas, with biographical sketch of Dallas by his son, George Mifflin Dallas.

These papers contain seven letters to his wife (1808-1833), a fragment of autobiography on his painting and studies, a notebook containing copies of correspondence about his portrait of Washington, John Godman's Ode suggested by Rembrandt Peale's National Portrait of Washington (1824), and a commonplace book containing kitchen and medicinal recipes.

These papers include two pages by Rubens Peale concerning landscapes, a notebook by Rembrandt Peale relating to the portrait of Washington, and a commonplace and recipe book, with sketches of gas lights.

This small volume records excerpts from British natural philosophy and scientific journals, written sometime after 1799. It covers a wide range of subjects, from astronomy to zoology.

This volume contains letters (a few in shorthand) relating to his pursuit of the position as principal recorder, and then, upon accomplishing this, his problems in publishing. There are sales accounts and a diary (April, 1793 to June, 1794), written while he was imprisoned in Newgate Prison, London (1793 to Jan., 1796). Included for this period is an interesting description, brought to him at Newgate by an Englishman, John Ford, who was seeking support and American contacts for his plan to take an English textile process to America: "A Manufacture of Wollen & Cotton Cloth & Without spinning or weaving," August, 1794.

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.

The notebook includes descriptions of land surveys in Wayne County, Pennsylvania, and notes in various hands on early history and settlers there. The maps include boundary descriptions, and there are copies of two deeds.

There are notes on the colonial history of Pennsylvania, with emphasis on William Penn and his family, the Society of Friends, James Logan, and the charters granted by Penn, with some notes on the study of languages and definition of words.