Over the past few weeks, we’ve been featuring posts by former AAS intern Lucia Ferguson (Smith College) about her experience identifying an unidentified diary (Part I, Part II, and Part III). This week she shares her concluding thoughts. Researching the Martin family proved mysterious and frustrating. And still, as I researched the lives Henry’s family [...]
Last week, former AAS intern Lucia Ferguson brought us through some of Henry Martin’s (a previously unidentified diarist) daily routines. Read on to learn about his experience as a soldier in the Civil War, and a miner in a goldmine. After working as a farmhand in his teenage years, Henry served in the Civil War. [...]
Last week we featured a post by former AAS intern Lucia Ferguson (Smith College) about her journey into an unidentified diary. Read on to learn more about the diarist’s day to day life as he recorded it in his diary. During 1867, when he kept this diary, Henry made his living by selling pictures and [...]
Former AAS intern Lucia Ferguson (Smith College) worked with a manuscript collection of unidentified diaries. Her charge? Identify the diarist. Lucia was very successful with one particular volume, which she discovered belonged to a young man named Henry Martin. Although no last name was listed anywhere in the volume, a poem from the diarist’s sweetheart [...]
It is often hard to find diaries written by young men and boys. So today I’d like to highlight a great diary kept by a young man, Thomas Whitaker, of Waltham, Massachusetts. Thomas began recording daily entries in 1874, when he was 17 years old, and the volume continues through 1878. He filled the entire [...]
Although now a full-time employee of AAS, my love for the Society began years before I started working here when it first introduced me to the thrill of researching in an archive. As a senior History major at the College of the Holy Cross, I was introduced to AAS by my thesis advisor, who suggested [...]
Recently I’ve been going through some newly acquired diaries in our manuscript collection. Randomly reading diary entries can prove to be very entertaining. Sure, you could end up reading page after page of daily weather, or recaps of Sunday sermons, but once in a while you’ll find a gem. Because so many diaries are straightforward [...]
Waterman, Martha Elizabeth and Walter. Journals, 1854-1880. Martha Elizabeth Drew was born in 1839 in Kingston, RI. She married Walter Waterman of Bridgewater, MA. This collection consists of three journals written by Martha, and one by Walter. Martha’s journal entries detail daily weather and daily activities such as calling on friends, and attending singing school [...]
With New Year’s Eve fast approaching, it’s time to think about our New Year’s resolutions. Resolutions are a wonderful way to reflect upon the past year, on the year to come, and attempt to bring about changes in our lives. It’s in our nature to seek this kind of renewal – everyone likes a fresh [...]
In 1842, Charles Dickens made his first of two visits to America. He took a sweeping tour of the country, meeting with dignitaries such as Longfellow, Poe, and President John Tyler. He visited Massachusetts, New York, Pennsylvania, Washington D.C., Virginia, Maryland, Ohio, Kentucky and Missouri. While in New York City, he was welcomed with a [...]
With wedding season upon us, and love and relationships at the forefront of many minds this time of the year, it’s fun to wonder what courting, love, and relationships were like, and how they’ve evolved over the past couple hundred years. We all have ideas in our minds, probably placed there through novels and films. [...]
In February of 1859, a scandalous event shook Washington D.C., involving two prominent politicians, betrayal and murder most foul. How intriguing! Hon. Daniel E. Sickles, Congressman from New York, shot and killed Philip Barton Key, U.S. District Attorney (and also, interestingly enough, son of famed composer Francis Scott Key), after discovering an affair between Key [...]
We began the new year with a teaser post on “Love and the Library” that introduced our new line-a-day subject, Nathan Beekley. We are now proud to debut the site based on Beekley’s diary for 1849, Clerk and the City . Beekley’s daily blog posts will appear in the sidebar on Past is Present, but [...]
Thursday, October 21, at 7:30 p.m. Reflections on A Midwife’s Tale by Laurel Thatcher Ulrich The Seventh Annual Robert C. Baron Lecture The book A Midwife’s Tale: The Life of Martha Ballard Based on Her Diary, 1785-1812 quickly became a model of social history when it was published in 1990. The book examines the life [...]
