Local History

Journals, Diaries, and Personal Correspondence

Journals, diaries, and personal correspondence can be helpful in researching the everyday lives of a variety of people in history.  The authors of journals, diaries, and letters include men, women, and children of varying socioeconomic backgrounds.

Journals, diaries, and personal correspondence have the ability to paint a more vivid picture of everyday life than a standard work, as they give us a sense of the past from the author’s point of view.  However, just because someone wrote down the information in journals, diaries, or letters does not make these items fact.  Be certain to verify any dates or events before they are recorded as fact.  Also, through reading a journal, diary, or letter, one may encounter opinions on topics that are contrary to their own or to contemporary thought.

Journals and Diaries

LH r630.092 G976
Winslow Gunn Daily Diaries, 1862-1865, and Accounting Book for 1865.

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Frankie Northrop Journal of 1874.

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Frankie Northrop Journal of 1879.

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Daily Diary of 1904, Anonymous.

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Richards, Caroline Cowles.  Village Life in America, 1852-1872:  Including the Period of the Civil War as told by in the Diary of a Schoolgirl.  Williamstown, MA: Corner House Publishers, 1972.

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Daily Journal of George M. Roberts, April 30, 1853 – May 3, 1859.

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M.S. Southworth Diary of 1867.

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Journal of James Sperry, a Journey from Henrietta, NY through Ohio, Indiana, and Michigan, beginning October 27, 1835.

Personal Correspondence

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Letters: Antoinette Brown Blackwell, Letter to Mrs. Post and Mrs. Bush, September 1851.  Interpreted by Helen Elam.  Unpublished, 1851.

LH r808.86 M571
Lasser, Carol and Marlene Deahl Merrill.  Friends & Sisters: Letters between Lucy Stone and Antoinette Brown Blackwell, 1846-1893.  Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1987.

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Fowler, Sarah A.  Autographs and Sentiments Collected by Sarah A. Fowler, 1879-1882.  Unpublished, 1882.

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Archive: Abram B. Lincoln.  A collection of professional and personal letters.  Unpublished, [?].   

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Newton, Alice.  Autographs and Sentiments Collected by Alice Newton, 1882-1892.  Unpublished, 1892.

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Wing, Mabel.  Autographs and Sentiments Collected by Mabel Wing, 1886-1897.  Unpublished, 1897.