ABSTRACT
The northeastern United States is endowed with the richest cache of old climate records available for anywhere in the Western Hemisphere, apart from a few locations in Latin America. Within the region are some of the earliest points of European settlement. Some of the earliest arrivals were well educated for their day and had an interest in natural philosophy, the predecessor of today's science. They immediately began to make a record of the New World's environment so that they could compare their findings to the world they had left behind. Among their notes can be found the grist for the preparation of climate records. By the beginning of the eighteenth century a thermometer and barometer were in place at Harvard College, Cambridge, Massachusetts and a record of observations was being sent to the Royal Society in London. Much of this data gathering was in the form of qualitative entries in diaries and journals, as well as instrument observations. This resulted from a growing interest in the role that climate played in deciding what crops could be grown, how soon rivers would be open to navigation in the spring, and what if any impact settlement was having on the occurrence of cold winters, droughts and floods.
