William Bartram's meteorological diary spans 1/1/1790-9/13/1791 and includes daily observations of temperature, humidity, wind, and precipitation. Occasionally, Bartram records the effects of weather on Philadelphia. For example, in the winter of 1790 he notes that the Schuylkill freezes over in at least two distinct entries (1/23 and 2/7). Researchers investigating Philadelphia weather conditions in the early national period may find this volume useful.
 

The Brainerd Diary offers a textured account of the missionary work of a Congregationalist in New England and the mid-Atlantic during the mid-eighteenth century (7/17-11/20/1745). While Jonathan Edwards published the journal after Brainerd's death of tuberculosis in 1747, the original volume at the APS differs from the published version in meaningful ways discussed in the Early American History note. Notably, Brainerd's journal offers a real-time account of his activities that researchers may read against the published version to consider how Edwards shaped the narrative. In addition to supporting the research of Brainerd and Edwards scholars, this diary offers a range of insights into colonial America, including the life and views of a missionaries in the eighteenth century and missionary exchanges with indigenous peoples. Reference the Early American History note for a detailed description of the volume. Interested researchers will also discover that the Beinecke has digitized another Brainerd diary: https://brbl-dl.library.yale.edu/vufind/Author?author=Brainerd%2C+David%2C+1718-1747

David Brainerd diary, July 14, 1745 - November 20, 1745
 
The Brainerd Diary offers a textured account of the missionary work of a Congregationalist in New England and the mid-Atlantic during the mid-eighteenth century (7/17-11/20/1745). While Jonathan Edwards published the journal after Brainerd's death of tuberculosis in 1747, the original volume at the APS differs from the published version in meaningful ways discussed in the Early American History note. Notably, Brainerd's journal offers a real-time account of his activities that researchers may read against the published version to consider how Edwards shaped the narrative. In addition to supporting the research of Brainerd and Edwards scholars, this diary offers a range of insights into colonial America, including the life and views of a missionaries in the eighteenth century and missionary exchanges with indigenous peoples. Reference the Early American History note for a detailed description of the volume. Interested researchers will also discover that the Beinecke has digitized another Brainerd diary: https://brbl-dl.library.yale.edu/vufind/Author?author=Brainerd%2C+David%2C+1718-1747

The Francis Hopkinson notebook provides insights into the finances, and, to a lesser degree, the personal affairs of an American statesman. Entries span 11/21/1785-9/3/1790, with one or two outlying entries, one dated 2/20/1784, and another, which records the death of a "Mr. Bordeu," from 4/8/1791. Given that Hopkinson himself died in November 1791, this volume provides a window into his final years. Most entries are devoted to accounts. For example, Hopkinson notes the purchase of a ten-volume encyclopedia (2/15/1790). However, he occasional references personal affairs, as he does on 10/15/1790, when he writes, "Nancy went to school again." This notebook may interest researchers exploring Hopkinson's biography or Philadelphia during the early national period.
 

This collection of seven volumes contains the minutes of various treaties the colony of Pennsylvania conducted with indigenous peoples. Notably, the volume with minutes for Indian treaties from 1758-1760 contains a journal into western areas taken in 1759 by George Croghan, agent of Sir William Johnson. This volume may interest scholars researching the Seven Years' War, colonial diplomacy, and Native America.
 

The four volumes of diaries contained in the J.P. Lesley Papers coincide with his appointment as Director of the Second Pennsylvania Geological Survey. Spanning 1874-1881, these volumes ought to interest scholars researching the Geological Survey of Pennsylvania, and the fields of applied geology and coal and iron mining more broadly. The first volume (1874) includes pages concerning the creation of the survey, copies of the acts of Congress, and Lesley's commentary on those acts. Notably, he includes a striking topographical map of Pennsylvania, colored for the principal geological formations (p.69). In fact, the third volume (1875-1876) includes a loose topographic map that bears striking similarity to the aforementioned. Finally, the second and fourth volumes (1874-1875 and 1877-1881, respectively) documents ore mining with some attention to fossils discovered.
 

The "Journal of a Voyage in the Ship Sampson" tracks the transatlantic crossing of an unknown immigrant from Liverpool to Philadelphia in 1819. The last pages describe the approach to Philadelphia in detail. The journal also touches on some of the emotions the author felt as he disembarked. The last page contains a poem written by the journal's author titled "On Leaving England for America" and a letter written to friends from "this land of liberty."
 

Plant physiologist and historian Rodney H. True kept 10 volumes of diaries sporadically. For the most part, the diaries written prior to 1917 include perfunctory daily notes on True's professional activities, with occasional personal comments, but the diaries for 1917-1919 include longer and more interesting passages. Although True was not a retrospective diarist, he commented regularly on the news from Europe and, to a lesser degree, on the home front, where he used his knowledge of agricultural science to assist in raising food for the war effort. The diaries for 1883 and 1926 are very brief, the latter being more an appointment book than a true diary.
 

The Chance Papers include two pocket diaries—and various undated notebooks—recorded during his study at Cambridge (1936 and 1942) and 14 pocket calendars spanning January 1950 to June 1951 (with the exception of August 1950 and January, April, and May 1951). These calendars include miscellaneous research notes, formulas, appointments, lectures, travel, and meetings. In fact, at least one entry (4/20/1950) notes a meeting with "Roughton," presumably Francis Roughton, for which APS also holds papers. The October 1950 calendar also includes what appear to be Chance's first impressions of numerous job or fellowship candidates. Those include a "Maison," whom he describes as a "real 'tough guy,'" and a "Brokerk," whom he praises "good appearance, clean-cut, good talker, good manner' but adds "has done sound but not outstanding research. Surely no Nobel prize winner."
 
Two personal notebooks, dated "April 1983" and "January 1980," include Chance's lengthiest and most unusual records. The 1980 notebook features haphazard notes with names, phone numbers, appointment times that continue as late as December 2000. Researchers will also discover a trove of ephemera interspersed in the pages, including appointment cards (e.g. "Male Fertilization Section"), post-it notes, stress test consent forms, a heart diagram, and even a letter from Penn concerning a biopsy. The 1983 notebook, which spans April 12 and June 16, appears to be a record of Chance's ballroom dancing. (Yes, you read that correctly.) While much of this notebook is empty, early pages include a schedule for ballroom dancing classes and notes regarding the Foxtrot, Rhumba, Cha-Cha, Tango, and other dances.
 
Researchers investigating Chance's career may also consult his lab binders, some of which feature dated entries (Series III). As a yachtsman, he also records weather conditions in some loose, dated pages (Series X, boxes 516 and 517).

The Britton Chance Papers include two pocket diaries dated 1936 and 1942, 14 pocket calendars maintained between 1950 and 1951, and two personal notebooks dated January 1980 and April 1983. In aggregate, these materials traverse his doctoral study at Cambridge and his career at the University of Pennsylvania. His diaries may interest researchers examining Chance's research and the fields of biochemistry and biophysics more generally.
 
The Chance Papers include two pocket diaries—and various undated notebooks—recorded during his study at Cambridge (1936 and 1942) and 14 pocket calendars spanning January 1950 to June 1951 (with the exception of August 1950 and January, April, and May 1951). These calendars include miscellaneous research notes, formulas, appointments, lectures, travel, and meetings. In fact, at least one entry (4/20/1950) notes a meeting with "Roughton," presumably Francis Roughton, for which APS also holds papers. The October 1950 calendar also includes what appear to be Chance's first impressions of numerous job or fellowship candidates. Those include a "Maison," whom he describes as a "real 'tough guy,'" and a "Brokerk," whom he praises "good appearance, clean-cut, good talker, good manner' but adds "has done sound but not outstanding research. Surely no Nobel prize winner."
 
Two personal notebooks, dated "April 1983" and "January 1980," include Chance's lengthiest and most unusual records. The 1980 notebook features haphazard notes with names, phone numbers, appointment times that continue as late as December 2000. Researchers will also discover a trove of ephemera interspersed in the pages, including appointment cards (e.g. "Male Fertilization Section"), post-it notes, stress test consent forms, a heart diagram, and even a letter from Penn concerning a biopsy. The 1983 notebook, which spans April 12 and June 16, appears to be a record of Chance's ballroom dancing. (Yes, you read that correctly.) While much of this notebook is empty, early pages include a schedule for ballroom dancing classes and notes regarding the Foxtrot, Rhumba, Cha-Cha, Tango, and other dances.
 
Researchers investigating Chance's career may also consult his lab binders, some of which feature dated entries (Series III). As a yachtsman, he also records weather conditions in some loose, dated pages (Series X, boxes 516 and 517).

The William Adair meteorological diary features observations of temperature, humidity, wind, and precipitation of Lewes, Delaware between 1776-1788. At the front of the volume, Adair writes, "The same instrument from which the book was taken, is at No. 94. South Third street Philadelphia." Researchers seeking Adair's other recordings—and other weather-related data from this period—may consult the Meteorology Collection (Mss.551.5.M56).
 

In a journal maintained during a transatlantic voyage from England to Delaware between 6/26/1803-8/20/1803, William Poyntell records wind directions, weather conditions, temperatures, and times of observation. He often includes observations pertaining to storms, lightning, and fog, and, on at least one occasion, he references the ship entering the Gulf Stream (7/30/1803). The volume also includes "Observations on the storm glass," intended for the membership at the American Philosophical Society. (The inside cover of the volume reads "Presented by Wm Poynell to the APS Philadelphia 5 Nov. 1803.") This journal may interest scholars researching meteorological conditions, transatlantic travel, and the institutional history of the American Philosophical Society.
 

The Evans journal begins on the day that her 17-year-old son John dies, cut down "in the bloom of health, in the beauty and vigour of youth" (4/28/1827). Over the next 17 years, the anniversaries of his birthday (2/5), death (4/29), and burial (5/1) serve as occasions for recollection and spiritual self-assessment. (So, too, do Christmas and New Year's Day.) Throughout the volume, Evans copies and composes scriptural and poetical verses that serve to transform her diary into a kind of commonplace book.
 
Although Evans regularly mourns the death of her son John, she also expresses concern for her other children, three of whom were enrolled at the University of Pennsylvania during a cholera outbreak. She writes, "The cholera that awful scourge which has been so long feared, has at last reached our city, and filled us with a dread and terror
 
every precaution that frail man could device is resorted to, to meet the fell destroyer—neither country nor town is exempt from its ravages" (7/25/1832).
 
Evans closes her journal on her 63rd birthday, 17 years after the death of her child, and "Sixteen years since I entered into Covenant with My God" (4/28/1844).

The Harriet Verena Evans journal is unlike any other in the APS collections. Evans began journaling late in life—on her 46th birthday, the same day that her 17-year-old son John died. Her recollections never stray far from that trauma. She returns to the death of her son with regularity, and his life appears to shape the form of her diary: she composes entries for exactly 17 years (4/28/1827-4/28/1844). The Evans diary is also unusual for its mode of composition. Interweaving homage to her son, scripture, religious self-assessment, and collected poetry, the Evans diary blends a woman's spiritual diary with a commonplace book. It is a remarkable volume that ought to interest researchers investigating women's history, antebellum mourning customs, and religious practice during the Second Great Awakening.
 
The Evans journal begins on the day that her 17-year-old son John dies, cut down "in the bloom of health, in the beauty and vigour of youth" (4/28/1827). Over the next 17 years, the anniversaries of his birthday (2/5), death (4/29), and burial (5/1) serve as occasions for recollection and spiritual self-assessment. (So, too, do Christmas and New Year's Day.) Throughout the volume, Evans copies and composes scriptural and poetical verses that serve to transform her diary into a kind of commonplace book.
 
Although Evans regularly mourns the death of her son John, she also expresses concern for her other children, three of whom were enrolled at the University of Pennsylvania during a cholera outbreak. She writes, "The cholera that awful scourge which has been so long feared, has at last reached our city, and filled us with a dread and terror
 
every precaution that frail man could device is resorted to, to meet the fell destroyer—neither country nor town is exempt from its ravages" (7/25/1832).
 
Evans closes her journal on her 63rd birthday, 17 years after the death of her child, and "Sixteen years since I entered into Covenant with My God" (4/28/1844).

John Rosseter was a ship captain whose log (1804-1805) offers a glimpse into Asia and seafaring life in nineteenth century. Rosseter's journal documents the voyage of the China Packet from Philadelphia to Macao (5/23-9/11/1804) as well as the return voyage (12/16/1804-4/25/1805). Although much of the volume is devoted to seafaring--with regular notes on winds, locational coordinates, weather, and other meteorological data--there is at least one entry that records his extended stay in China. After his final entry, Rosseter writes the following concluding statement: "One hundred & thirty days from Maccoa out of which time we had 30 Calm days, the longest passage I Ever had from China. With this Journal I have done and glad Am I." (4/25/1805).
 

Philadelphia physician Samuel George Morton helped shape the development of physical anthropology in antebellum America. His diary of a trip to the West Indies offers a case study in scientific racism. The volume includes various observations on life, work, agriculture, and slavery in Barbados and other islands. Notably, Morton's journal includes derogatory comments on the native inhabitants that researchers might choose to examine in tandem with other records available in the Samuel George Morton Papers, such his "craniometrical drawings," which were used by pro-slavery advocates. This diary may interest scholars examining slavery in antebellum science and racial thought, slavery in Barbados, and the history of the West Indies more broadly.
 

Disentangling the sequence of the notebooks can be challenging, even for readers conversant in German. Bill Cahill provides the following chronological sequencing, by volume: 17, 16, 3, 4, 8, 21, 5, 24, 19, 22, 17, 24, 20, 12, 18, 19, 14, 16, 24, 1, 15, 2, 9, 10, 11, 23, 13, 24, 7, 6. Note that some volumes contain overlapping entries.

The Henry Muhlenberg journals encompass 24 volumes that span nearly four decades of the early national period (1777-1815). These volumes offer a near-daily record of botanical descriptions as well as various lists, biblical notations, prescriptions, and questions asked of candidates for the Lutheran ministry. The journals are written in German and Latin, though Muhlenberg transcribes some quotations and place names in English. These volumes will interest German-reading scholars researching Muhlenberg, the religious practices of Lutheran ministers, and the study of botany in the early republic.
 
Disentangling the sequence of the notebooks can be challenging, even for readers conversant in German. Bill Cahill provides the following chronological sequencing, by volume: 17, 16, 3, 4, 8, 21, 5, 24, 19, 22, 17, 24, 20, 12, 18, 19, 14, 16, 24, 1, 15, 2, 9, 10, 11, 23, 13, 24, 7, 6. Note that some volumes contain overlapping entries.

Peter Legaux maintained two volumes of meteorological records between 1787-1800 in Spring Mill (what is today the Whitemarsh Township just outside of Philadelphia). The first volume features his correspondence with the American Philosophical Society—addressed to the society's then-president, Thomas Jefferson—in which he explains his methods for recording data, excerpted in Selected Quotations (2/25/1801). The second volume contains the data, including records from Philadelphia (c.1740-1770) that are believed to have been conducted by Phineas [or possibly Israel] Pemberton. Notably, when Legaux discusses the "Extraordinary cold for the season of the year" on 6/16/1816, he appears to describe what would later became known as the "year without summer," following the eruption of the volcano Tomboro in 1815. Researchers seeking further Legaux recordings—and other weather-related data from this period—may consult the Meteorology Collection (Mss.551.5.M56).
 

The Thomas Coates Collection contains one small, pocket-size journal with entries spanning the final two decades the seventeenth century (1682-1699). Coates, an early Quaker settler in Philadelphia, arrived in 1683 and established himself as a tailor and merchant by the 1690s. His journal, maintained in the margins of a British Merlin almanac dated 1683, mostly contains personal accounts and transactions, beginning as early as 1/22/1682. Most of his accounts date from the 1690s—curiously, many of his entries from 1695 are crossed out—and they include purchases of household items such as fabric, flax, butter, and nails (spelled "nayls"). Coates names many contemporaneous Philadelphians in the accounts. His journal also recounts a return to England in late-1683, and subsequent voyage back to America, via an unspecified location in Virginia. Notably, there are several memoranda scattered throughout the entries, including one memorializing the death of his mother (1678) and another commemorating his birthday (1659). Coates furnishes one of the oldest Philadelphia diaries in the collections at the American Philosophical Society, and, as such, this volume provides rare glimpses into the city's early social, economic, and material life.
 

The three volumes of the Ship Apollo document captain William Billings's voyages between 12/10/1789-9/15/1791. Billings traveled from Philadelphia to A Coruna, Spain (1789-90), Porto, Portugal (1791), and back to Philadelphia (1791). During those voyages, Billings made various observations about the Gulf Stream (namely ocean temperature and weather) with the apparent intention of submitting his findings to the American Philosophical Society. This journal may interest scholars researching the Gulf Stream and transatlantic travel in the late-eighteenth century.
 

As described in greater detail in the Early American History note, Hutchinson discusses a host of troubles aboard his ship. Those include concerns about lightning strikes to the ship laden with gun powder (2/26), various issues with bread and meat rations (2/28), and a brief encounter with a French brig that Hutchinson describes as "in almost as bad a situation as ourselves, but able to spare several bottles of spirits and roughly two pounds of cheese" (3/3). Upon reaching landfall in Chesapeake Bay (3/9), Hutchinson devotes the remaining entries his journey back to Philadelphia. At the back of the volume, he encloses an essay defending Quakers against chargers of loyalism, for which a rough transcription is provided below.

This incomplete volume describes the culmination of a transatlantic journey taken by James Hutchinson in the winter of 1777 (2/26-3/16). Having completed his medical residency under the supervision under Dr. John Fothergill at St. Bartholomew's Hospital in London, Hutchinson describes in detail his journey back to Philadelphia, where he would serve as Surgeon General of Pennsylvania. In addition to offering an account of what Hutchison terms a "very disagreeable" transatlantic voyage, this volume includes an essay defending Quakers from attacks by revolutionaries, which might have been intended for publication. (The essay is signed "A Friend to the Liberty of Conscience.") This volume may interest researchers exploring the eighteenth century Atlantic, seafaring, and the Society of Friends in the American Revolution.
 
As described in greater detail in the Early American History note, Hutchinson discusses a host of troubles aboard his ship. Those include concerns about lightning strikes to the ship laden with gun powder (2/26), various issues with bread and meat rations (2/28), and a brief encounter with a French brig that Hutchinson describes as "in almost as bad a situation as ourselves, but able to spare several bottles of spirits and roughly two pounds of cheese" (3/3). Upon reaching landfall in Chesapeake Bay (3/9), Hutchinson devotes the remaining entries his journey back to Philadelphia. At the back of the volume, he encloses an essay defending Quakers against chargers of loyalism, for which a rough transcription is provided below.

The Rufus Ivory Cole Papers include at least 10 volumes of journals spanning 1861-1927. The bulk of those volumes were maintained by John B. Smith and Ivory S. Cole in the second-half of the nineteenth century. Those include a school notebook (10/3/1861-7/15/1865), a daybook with some accounts (11/20/1868-9/25/1871), four diaries with brief entries focused on household chores (1874, 1875, 1877, 1886), and a pair of daybooks from the early-twentieth century (1910 and 1913-14). There is also at least one appointment book belonging to Rufus Ivory Cole, a pioneer in clinical research. That volume records various notes pertaining to travels and meetings between 1910-1927. Finally, there is a memorandum book that includes sporadic notes from June and July of an unspecified year.
 

A pioneer in cybernetics, neurology, and the development of the computer, Warren S. McCulloch maintained five years of appointment books in his late-career (1963, 1965, 1966-68). Although McCulloch records only spare notes, these volumes document meetings, travels, and lectures that ought to interest scholars researching McCulloch and the history of cybernetics more broadly. McCulloch makes regular references to American Society for Cybernetics (often simply as "ASC") and participates in a "Symposium on higher nervous activity Madrid (IV World Congress of psychiatry)" (9/5-9/11/1966). Notably, he includes some ephemera in his earliest volume, scraps which can offer glimpses into his research and professional activities. For example, he encloses a slip of note concerning a talk entitled "The Evolution of Culture as Revealed by Scale Analysis" dated 11/25/1963.