1787 Early American Math Manuscript Book Sally Brown Handwritten Book Arithmetic

Description

1787 Early American Math Manuscript Cypher Book by a Sally Brown [Dated May 19th, 1787]
After the American Revolution, Americans began thinking of education in varying ways. From the 1780s to the 1800s, there was a boom in the establishment of female academies or referred to as “Seminaries”, making higher education available to more middle and upper class girls. John Poor (1752-1829) established the Young Ladies’ Academy of Philadelphia in 1787, which would become one of the the first chartered female academies in the US. Even though the school name of this piece is not identified, it could be thought to be from Pennsylvania based on math problems using Philadelphia. York might be York Pennsylvania or shortened for New York, or possibly York Maine.
There were a very few schools such as The Moses Brown School in Rhode Island which was an early coeducational school founded in 1784. It’s quite possible our Sally attended here also as a Sarah (Sally) Brown (1773–1846) was from Providence a daughter of John Brown (1736–1803) and Sarah Smith (1738–1825) and Moses Brown (1738–1836) was an uncle. Moses Brown was instrumental in the 1787 passage of a law banning the participation of Rhode Islanders in the slave trade. Sally’s father, John Brown was a merchant and statesman from Providence, with brothers Nicholas, Joseph and Moses, was instrumental in founding Brown University. With education of utmost importance in this Brown family, Sally might be from this family.
Sampling of exercises include:
Reducing
York
money into
Philadelphia
money
How many buckles each weighing 3 ounces can be made out of 17 pounds of silver?
How many spoons each one and three-quarter ounces may be made out of 5 pounds of silver?
How many Barleycorns are there in 1 mile?
How many Barleycorns will reach around the globe of the earth which is 360° each degree 69 1/2 miles?
In 40 quarters of wheat how many bushels and pecks?
Add 30 chaldron of Coals each 36 bushels how many pecks?
Exact identity of our student is unknown; according to US census records and Ancestry records there are just a few possibilities based on the date of 1787 the student would be approximately 14-17 years old with birth date c1770-1774. Interesting to note current events include May 14, 1787 In Philadelphia, when delegates arrived to write a new Constitution for the United States. Sally’s book predates the "Mint Act" of April 2, 1792, which established the coinage system of the United States and the dollar as the principal unit of currency. Colonists had counted their money by the English system of pounds, shillings, and pence.
Topics
: cloth measure, land measure, Troy weight, apothecaries, liquid measure, wine measure, Winchester measure, dry measure, time, subtraction, compound subtraction, simple multiplication, compound multiplication, division, compound division, reduction, exchange of money, reduction of Troy weight, Long measure…(A
barleycorn
is a former unit of length equal to 1⁄3 of an inch)
Condition and notes
Self wrappers (detached) edge worn and tattered
Dated May 19, 1787 towards the end of the manuscript; other dates of 1786 within the exercises as pictured
Folio measures about 8” by 13”
Age toned paper
Scattered foxing
About 70 pages
Some browning
Curled edges
No torn pages
Name and date are not on the same page
Separation of some pages in gutter
Ink splotches
Edges worn
Brown ink
Pages not numbered
A few blank leaves at the end
Name of Sally Brown neatly penned once
Several leaves excised at back
Paper is watermarked GWS Pro Patria, imported
Wraps detached
Binding fragile
Back wrap as shown is wrinkled with some foxing
The name Sally could be a Nick name for Sarah and Salome, no boys names found as a Sally on this time frame.
Additional photos on request
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