Exhibition Themes > Theology & Religion > 133. Solomon Stoddard
133. Solomon Stoddard (1643-1729). Common Place Book and Sermon Notes. Manuscript on paper, 1660-64. Burke Library at Union Theological Seminary, MS 104
Solomon Stoddard was born in Boston in 1643 and graduated from Harvard College in 1662. From 1667 to 1674 Stoddard served as the first librarian at Harvard. This volume contains his college notes. These include the name of the instructor for the day, as well as the scripture that was expounded in class and then applied to seventeenth-century society. Using what would have been the blank portions of the pages, and turning the volume upside down, Stoddard also used the volume to make notes for sermons that he preached during the early years of his ministry at Northampton, where he served until his death in 1729. His grandson, Jonathan Edwards, was ordained associate pastor of the Northampton church in 1727.
