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1.Title:  Richard Joel Russell Notebooks (1938, 1952)
 Dates:  1938 - 1952 
 Extent:  4 volumes  
 Locations:  Adapazarı | Ankara | Assa | Izmit | Tiznit | Amsterdam | Andalsnes | Arles | Baton Rouge | Berlin | Bingen | Bonn | Cannes | Chioggia | Cologne | Copenhagen | Florence | Geneva | Grasse | Grenoble | Hamburg | Haugesund | Heerlen | Heidelberg | Helsinki | Innsbruck | Kiel | Koblenz | Kristiansund | Limburg | Lom | Lyon | Mainz | Marseille | Mittenwald | Montmajour | Montgomery | Munich | Odda | Oettingen in Bayern | Oslo | Paris | Pisa | Porvoo | Rotterdam | Rovigo | s-Hertogenbosch | Saint-Gilles | Saint-Louis | Sassnitz | Savannah | Seljestad | Stockholm | Strasbourg | Stuttgart | Tampere | Tyssedal | Utrecht | Valkenburg | Valldalen | Venice | Veracruz | Verdun | Verona | Versailles | Zurich 
 Abstract:  The Richard Joel Russell papers contain a two-volume travel diary of geographer and geologist Richard Joel Russell provides a detailed, on-the-ground account of the Europe on the eve of World War II. The diary follows Russell from a skiing strip in Norway through Berlin to Paris and into both Italy and Austria. These volumes document how Nazi and fascist propaganda comes to shape even prosaic affairs, such as going to the theater. Researchers interested in Europe at the threshold of World War II will be richly rewarded by this extraordinary pair of volumes.; The papers also contain two geological notebooks pertaining to Russell's 1952 expeditions. These volumes ought to interest researchers examining the Russell's research and the geology or geography of Morocco and Turkey. 
    
Russell's 1938 travel diary begins with attention to sightseeing and recreation (skiing) in Norway, but, within a few entries, they begin to record news from the south. "We are listening to radio news with interest, as Hitler has taken over Austria and there is a huge meeting of workers in Paris today, apparently ready to stir things up," he writes on 3/14. "I expect to go ahead with all summer plans, but the situation at least looks as if there may be some ugly clouds develop on the horizon." Russell ultimately continues in his travels, which carry him through some of Europe's largest cities.
 
First, he books a rail ticket to Paris, that takes him through Berlin. While in Germany, he attends a vaudeville performance bookended with Nazi propaganda films, a passage excerpted in Selected Quotations (4/3). From Paris he continues to Marseille and then Florence, where Adolf Hitler is slated to visit. "The station at Florence is new & modernistic--it is one of the finest I have seen south of Stuttgart, probably the finest," writes Russell on 4/26. "Hitler is to visit Florence and passports are being scrutinized as never before." Several days later, he recounts the fanfare accompanying Hitler's arrival: "Hitler passes in the morning, so Italian & German flags hang from windows along the whole route. At [Brenner], the border station, there were red carpets in the station--he will apparently cross the border on float" (5/2).
 
Russell continues onto Austria and Innsbruck, where he cannot escape Nazi changes. In Innsbruck, he writes that the "Jewish shops are designated" (5/2), and he finds himself "Awakened to the singing of marching troops up the Swastika bannered avenue" (5/3). Russell discusses the changes with two friends—Anna and Hans—both of whom appear critical of the Nazis. He fears for Hans's Steinmeyer organ business (excerpted in Selected Quotations).
 
From Innsbruck, Russell travels to the Nazi strongholds of Munich and Vienna. In Munich, he notes a celebration for "2000 years of German culture" (7/5). In Vienna, he notes the tenuous alliance between Italy and Germany. "The Germans are going to get mighty tired of their allies, in fact the ordinary 'man-on-the-street' is already has little to say when you mention the boys wearing the red & green ribbons, who exhale garlic fumes and crowd the street cars," Russell writes on 7/10. "Few people understand Italian and few Italians know any German. The whole alliance is repulsive to most Germans I think."
 
Russell's two geological notebooks begin in mid-August 1952 and contain notes concerning his travels throughout Morocco, such as Tiznit and various other small towns and villages. The second volume, dated October 1952, contains notes from Turkey, including excursions to Ankara, Adapazarı, and Izmit.
 
Russell provides studious observations concerning sand dunes, bedrock, and beaches
 
highways and roads
 
settlements and ruins
 
and his various modes of travel. For example, in a passage describing the journey between Notfia to Aoreora, he writes, "6-wheel-drive Dodge, 2-ton "personnel carriers had no difficulty, but a common automobile would find the road from difficult to impassable."
 
Elsewhere, he provides careful sketches of topography, and occasionally, even qualitative assessments of destinations. For example, he describes Assa as "an interesting and populous oasis" which was only "pacified" in the late-1930s.
 
    
The Richard Joel Russell papers contain a two-volume travel diary of geographer and geologist Richard Joel Russell provides a detailed, on-the-ground account of the Europe on the eve of World War II. The diary follows Russell from a skiing strip in Norway through Berlin to Paris and into both Italy and Austria. These volumes document how Nazi and fascist propaganda comes to shape even prosaic affairs, such as going to the theater. Researchers interested in Europe at the threshold of World War II will be richly rewarded by this extraordinary pair of volumes.; The papers also contain two geological notebooks pertaining to Russell's 1952 expeditions. These volumes ought to interest researchers examining the Russell's research and the geology or geography of Morocco and Turkey.
 
Russell's 1938 travel diary begins with attention to sightseeing and recreation (skiing) in Norway, but, within a few entries, they begin to record news from the south. "We are listening to radio news with interest, as Hitler has taken over Austria and there is a huge meeting of workers in Paris today, apparently ready to stir things up," he writes on 3/14. "I expect to go ahead with all summer plans, but the situation at least looks as if there may be some ugly clouds develop on the horizon." Russell ultimately continues in his travels, which carry him through some of Europe's largest cities.
 
First, he books a rail ticket to Paris, that takes him through Berlin. While in Germany, he attends a vaudeville performance bookended with Nazi propaganda films, a passage excerpted in Selected Quotations (4/3). From Paris he continues to Marseille and then Florence, where Adolf Hitler is slated to visit. "The station at Florence is new & modernistic--it is one of the finest I have seen south of Stuttgart, probably the finest," writes Russell on 4/26. "Hitler is to visit Florence and passports are being scrutinized as never before." Several days later, he recounts the fanfare accompanying Hitler's arrival: "Hitler passes in the morning, so Italian & German flags hang from windows along the whole route. At [Brenner], the border station, there were red carpets in the station--he will apparently cross the border on float" (5/2).
 
Russell continues onto Austria and Innsbruck, where he cannot escape Nazi changes. In Innsbruck, he writes that the "Jewish shops are designated" (5/2), and he finds himself "Awakened to the singing of marching troops up the Swastika bannered avenue" (5/3). Russell discusses the changes with two friends—Anna and Hans—both of whom appear critical of the Nazis. He fears for Hans's Steinmeyer organ business (excerpted in Selected Quotations).
 
From Innsbruck, Russell travels to the Nazi strongholds of Munich and Vienna. In Munich, he notes a celebration for "2000 years of German culture" (7/5). In Vienna, he notes the tenuous alliance between Italy and Germany. "The Germans are going to get mighty tired of their allies, in fact the ordinary 'man-on-the-street' is already has little to say when you mention the boys wearing the red & green ribbons, who exhale garlic fumes and crowd the street cars," Russell writes on 7/10. "Few people understand Italian and few Italians know any German. The whole alliance is repulsive to most Germans I think."
 
Russell's two geological notebooks begin in mid-August 1952 and contain notes concerning his travels throughout Morocco, such as Tiznit and various other small towns and villages. The second volume, dated October 1952, contains notes from Turkey, including excursions to Ankara, Adapazarı, and Izmit.
 
Russell provides studious observations concerning sand dunes, bedrock, and beaches
 
highways and roads
 
settlements and ruins
 
and his various modes of travel. For example, in a passage describing the journey between Notfia to Aoreora, he writes, "6-wheel-drive Dodge, 2-ton "personnel carriers had no difficulty, but a common automobile would find the road from difficult to impassable."
 
Elsewhere, he provides careful sketches of topography, and occasionally, even qualitative assessments of destinations. For example, he describes Assa as "an interesting and populous oasis" which was only "pacified" in the late-1930s.
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  Selected Quotations
  • "There were propaganda movies both before and after the [vaudeville] performances. There are propaganda movies…all over the city and I saw several long parades of soldiers and sailors. Today, vote 'JA' 'You owe your thanks to the Leader,' etc. All in all I prefer Russia to Berlin. I was never keen on the wrinkled necked Prussians and right now they look cockier than ever. If they ever tangle with Russia, I think my sympathies will be on the Russian side. When the Russians get together they sing, and the song has such a nice melody you go away whistling it. I leave Berlin with nothing but the beating of drums and unmelodic blasts of brass horns in my musical mind. 'One Reich, One People, One Leader.' The stores are full the new map of Germany, with Austria included. The streets are full of soldiers. So far as I know I had no real coffee, butter, or white bread. But the stores seem well stocked and prices are fairly reasonable in terms of countries to the north" (4/3/1938)

  • "Anna looks fine, but Hitler is preying on her mind, and is hard for her to talk about other things, without coming back to how awful conditions are in Germany. She has never said 'Heil' yet and hopes to keep up the record" (5/7)

  • "[Hans] looks fine, is as jovial & entertaining as ever, and is as anti as a person can be about Hitler. His business is none too good, employs 80% of his regular force, but can't export anything as the mark at 40 cents is too high. He has to buy pewter from smugglers for his organ pipes as it is unlawful to use it for things other than armaments--so faces possible fine & jail in order to keep up the standard of Steinmeyer organs. His men say 'Gruss Gatt,' as Bavarians always have. Even now this whole district votes 'Nein.' But I'm afraid that the Steinmeyer's are unwise in not playing ball with the Nazi outfit and think that they are suffering somewhat needlessly financially--possible not--organs are sold to churches, and churches don't 'Heil.' Hans says many churches buy organs now because they are afraid that unused money will be confiscated" (5/8/1938)
 
 Subjects:  Americans Abroad | Austria--History--1918-1938. | Diaries. | Europe. | Expedition | Fascism. | France--History--1914-1940. | Geography. | Geology. | Germany--History--1933-1945. | Hitler, Adolf, 1889-1945. | Italy--History--1914-1945. | Morocco - Description and travel. | Nazis. | Propaganda. | Science. | Travel. | Turkey--Description and travel. | World War II. 
 Collection:  Richard Joel Russell papers, [ca. 1930s-1971]  (Mss.B.R91,.d,.m,.n)  
  Go to the collection
 
2.Title:  Charles Benedict Davenport Diaries (1878-1944)
 Dates:  1878 - 1944 
 Extent:  95 volumes  
 Locations:  Amsterdam | Boston | Chicago | London | New York | Paris | Philadelphia | Rome | Vienna | Washington D.C. | Arlington | Atlantic City | Bolzano | Bergen | Bermuda | Biloxi | Bloomington | Brunn | Brussels | Cambridge | Carlisle | Charlottesville | Cheyenne | Cincinnati | Cold Spring Harbor | Columbus | Copenhagen | Dallas | Drobak | Durham | Fairfax | Grand Canyon | Halifax | Huntington | Indianapolis | Ithaca | Jacksonville | Kansas City | Koblenz | Lewes | Lexington | Liverpool | Louisville | Lucania | Mesa Verde | Mexico City | Miami | Minneapolis | Minneola | Montreal | Munich | Naples | Newark | New Haven | New Rochelle | Newport | New Canaan | Oslo | Oyster Bay | Pittsburg | Quebec | Raleigh | Rapid City | Rheims | Richmond | Rochester | San Juan | Santiago de Cuba | Savannah | Southampton | Stamford | Strasbourg | Stuttgart | St. Louis | St. Paul | Stockholm | Sydney | Syosset | Trondheim | Uppsala | Utrecht | White Yellowstone National Park | Yucata | Zion National Park | Zurich 
 Abstract:  The Charles Benedict Davenport Papers include 95 diaries—and numerous ancillary materials—spanning 66 years (1878-1944). In fact, the collection traverses Davenport's formative years and adult life, beginning with student notebooks that he maintained at the age of 12 to a five-year diary that culminates with an entry recorded less than two weeks before his death (dated 2/5/1944). Davenport's diaries contain a wealth of material valuable to researchers investigating his personal life, scientific research—especially the field of Eugenics—religion (Congregationalism), politics, and World War II. At least one diary, which spans 4/1/1905 to 3/16/1913, appears to have been maintained by his wife, Gertrude. 
    
Davenport employed a host of different types of notebooks to record entries. Those include: Standard Diary, A Line a Day, Red Star Diary, Nassau Diary, Loesen Engagement Book, Daily Reminder, Vaughan's, New Census, Marquette, and various loosely bound notebooks. While he records weather conditions (often with temperatures), meetings, and accounts throughout those records, his earliest accounts proffer his most personal and narrative entries.
 
Between 1878-84, Davenport writes regularly about his religious upbringing, studies, work at the Polytechnic Institute, and political observations. Religion features prominently in Davenport's youth: In addition to regularly attending church and Sunday School, he records notes and thoughts about particular readings and sermons (consider for example 1/6/1878, 1/29/1882, and 2/16/1882). In a 1/22/1882 entry, he even notes the visit of a Mormon woman from Utah, which he later marks as a "principal personal event."
 
Alongside notes about subjects related to studies, Davenport records household chores (7/16/1881), recreational activities (walks, rides, croquet), trips (e.g. a summer visit to the New Hampshire White Mountains in 1884), cultural excursions (the American Museum of Natural History on 1/6/1879), personal readings (1/3/1881), and some of the first evidence of his interest in surveying (illustrations of a chapel hall, 1/2/1880). The young Davenport also demonstrated an unusual curiosity in current affairs and politics. For example, his first journal includes an enthusiastic account of election day (11/5-11/6/1878), and his 1881 diary features several entries dedicated to assassination of President James Garfield and ascension of Chester A. Arthur (9/26-9/30/1881). These early diaries are also some of Davenport's most playful: he self-consciously reflects on diary-writing (2/6-2/7/1878, 1878 memoranda, 1880 front matter, and 9/6/1880) and intersperses doodles to commemorate holidays (12/311878 and 2/22/1879, 5/30/1879, 6/1/1879).
 
Subsequent diaries are less narrative in nature, but illuminating their own right. Davenport maintains notebooks on subject area interests, including a journal entitled "Ornithology 1885" which includes migration charts from the American Ornithologists' Union," notebooks dedicated to topology, mineralogy, budding and regeneration, and research on the human brain (1885-1892), and various notebooks dedicated to the study of human inheritance. As Davenport's career begins to take off around the fin de siecle, he includes more notes related to lectures, seminars, student meetings, dinners, and lab work. His marriage to Gertrude Crotty surfaces in the five-year diary spanning 1899-1905 via birthday reminders (2/28/1899), city outings (9/11/1900), and notes related to their child, Janet (1/2/1899).
 
Researchers will find that Davenport's early-twentieth century diaries provide insights into his burgeoning career in genetics. In addition to notebooks pertaining to expeditions to the Biloxi, Mississippi (March 1901), Europe (September-October 1902 and 1909-10), and Mt. Washington (August 1908), a 1903 notebook features notes on "Topics of Inheritance" and allusions to work on a laboratory—almost certainly his Carnegie-funded lab in Cold Spring Harbor. Nevertheless, many of his entries could easily be confused with those of a farmer: Davenport records notes to purchase chicken feed, coal, grain, and rat poison, and a 1909-10 diary features numerous and meticulous illustrations of fish (October 1909 – March 1910). Concurrently, Davenport notes numerous meetings with leaders in genetics, botany, and zoology, including George Harrison Shull, Herbert Spencer Jennings, Edward Bagnall Poulton, Albert Francis Blakeslee, and Edmund Beecher Wilson. Perhaps most significantly, beginning around 1911, Davenport starts to reference Mary Harriman, who would later fund his work in eugenics.
 
Eugenics surface most directly in Davenport's diaries maintained throughout the 1910s and 1920s. Alongside regular visits to the "Harriman House," Davenport notes the opening of his laboratory ("Bio Lab Opens," 6/26/1912) and his increasing commitments to the field of eugenics. That includes notes on "Dwarfs of Lamar Lamar" (11/14/1911), reminders of "families to study (e.g. "chemists," "artists," "statesmen," "vocalists," and "naval" in his 1913 memoranda), and an account of "negative" and "positive eugenics" (January 1920). One notebook (dated "February 12") is less a diary than a set of eugenics lecture notes, including a "Field worker's guide" that describes the consequences of segregation, limitations of the law of heredity, and pages allocated for recording hair color, skin color, stature, mental activity, feeble-mindedness (e.g. pauperism, crime, insanity, criminality).
 
Between 1914-1930, Davenport makes numerous trips to Europe to study eugenics (including (1914, 1922, and 1929). His 1914 trip is explicitly labeled "Eugenics in Holland" (10/22). A series of loose, typed pages entitled "Diary of Trip to Europe, September 13 to October 31, 1922," includes notes on a lecture entitled "Das Mutations Problem" in Vienna (9/25) and his participation in the Second Commission of Eugenics through which he "Voted to admit Germany and all other, properly qualified countries to the Commission" (10/9). Perhaps most remarkably, at the end of that trip, Davenport records a meeting with Charles Darwin's son, Leonard: "At Lewes was met by Darwin and taken to his home in Sussex. Private conference on eugenical matters" (10/20).
 
That engagement carries home, where, in a 1930 diary, he includes a series of relevant newspaper clippings: "Racial related to a Racial Integrity Bill Signed" in Richmond, Virginia (3/14), "Extols African Marriage" (3/4), "Senate Refuses to Shelve Harris Quota Bill: Senate Again Rejects Motion by Glass aimed at Salvaging National origins Clause" (4/24), and "Dr. Adler Closes Psychology Clinic: Noted Viennese Scientist Declared Target of Medical Center Critics" (5/31). In some loose pages associated with that diary, Davenport compares a colleague (simply identified as "Gordon") to the Croatian-American geneticist Milislav Demerec: While Davenport finds Gordon "industrious and fertile in ideas," he adds that he is "not so brilliant as Demerec" (6/3).
 
Davenport's remaining diaries (1931-1944) mostly focus on various trips, with occasional mentions of the outbreak of World War II. The early-1930s feature a series of notebooks dedicated to travel in the Americas, including a "Western Trip" and "Trip to the West by Automobile" (which collectively span July-October 1931), as well as trips to Bermuda, Mexico, and Nova Scotia. The Nova Scotia trip is noteworthy because Davenport explicitly notes an encounter with Russian-American geneticist Theodosius Dobzhansky. In his late-1930s journals, World War II surfaces, if only briefly. In a diary spanning 1937-39, Davenport notes Germany's seizure of Poland (9/1/1939) and Great Britain's subsequent declaration of war (9/3/1939). Curiously, he also alludes to a "Cox: Atomic Nuclear" in multiple entries of June and July in his 1940 diary.
 
Finally, the Davenport diaries are noteworthy for their idiosyncrasies: these include at least one volume authored by his wife, and the eclectic range of ephemera include inside and alongside the diaries. In a volume signed "G.L. Davenport"—and bearing numerous allusions to "Charles and Charlie throughout—Gertrude Davenport records a series of entries between 4/1/1905 to 3/16/1913. Of particular interest is her protest of race track gambling (4/19/1908 and 4/23/1908) and the dedication to Carnegie Lab, with a note of an encounter with Andrew Carnegie, who "disappointed the department by not adding to the endowment" (1/3/1910). Alongside accounts of various farm and house work (mending garments, cleaning, and, unusual for a homemaker, making concrete blocks), this diary also notes Gertrude's reading, namely Harper's Monthly and the Century.
 
Across the series 95 diaries, Davenport includes a host of rich and sometimes peculiar ephemera: a letter, dated March 20, 1901 enclosed in an 1889 notebook, an image of Robert E. Lee (7/13/1905), a doodle of a family crest (3/17/1910), pamphlets related to ornithology (1920) and major snowstorm (2/2/1930), membership cards for the Arts Center of New York (1925) and the American Museum of Natural History (1943), Davenport's 1922 and 1925 passports, programs for a meeting of the Eugenics Research Association (6/3/1930) and a symposium on "Theory and Development" at Davenport's home (3/21/1930), train tickets to Washington (9/5/1918 and 7/9/1919), the ferry service between Staten Island and Brooklyn (5/3/1925), and the Long Island Railroad schedule (1927), receipts, deposit slips, and scraps of paper labeled everything from "OBESITY" (8/19/1915) to "Committee on Ways and Means" (1917), and even wooden toothpicks, which Davenport appeared to have used as bookmarks (9/5/1918, 10/31/1918, 3/12/1933, and 5/7/1933).
 
Although Davenport rarely uses his diaries for reflection, his enclosure of ancillary materials reveals his personal networks and popular reading. Throughout the diaries, scholars will discover business and calling cards for William Cohill (1902), Edith Reeves (1911), "Brinkerhoff" (1911), Sidney Ball (1914), "Antipodes" (1914), George Laible (1915), H. Lundborg (1923), Charles Herrman (1925), E.J. Lidbetter (1927), Gebruder Dippe (1930), H.J. Parsen (1933), and Ji-Yen Rikamaru (1937). Davenport also regularly encloses snippets from newspapers, including a piece Russian mogul named M. Rachatnikoff who sought "the improvement of the human race" (12/9/1906), Mary Harriman's purchase of land and sheep (9/25/1911), op-eds on immigration policy (9/9/1915) and access to birth control (1920), an obituary for Dwight Comstock (9/16/1932), and reports of Nassau County budget cuts (11/9/1942).
 
    
The Charles Benedict Davenport Papers include 95 diaries—and numerous ancillary materials—spanning 66 years (1878-1944). In fact, the collection traverses Davenport's formative years and adult life, beginning with student notebooks that he maintained at the age of 12 to a five-year diary that culminates with an entry recorded less than two weeks before his death (dated 2/5/1944). Davenport's diaries contain a wealth of material valuable to researchers investigating his personal life, scientific research—especially the field of Eugenics—religion (Congregationalism), politics, and World War II. At least one diary, which spans 4/1/1905 to 3/16/1913, appears to have been maintained by his wife, Gertrude.
 
Davenport employed a host of different types of notebooks to record entries. Those include: Standard Diary, A Line a Day, Red Star Diary, Nassau Diary, Loesen Engagement Book, Daily Reminder, Vaughan's, New Census, Marquette, and various loosely bound notebooks. While he records weather conditions (often with temperatures), meetings, and accounts throughout those records, his earliest accounts proffer his most personal and narrative entries.
 
Between 1878-84, Davenport writes regularly about his religious upbringing, studies, work at the Polytechnic Institute, and political observations. Religion features prominently in Davenport's youth: In addition to regularly attending church and Sunday School, he records notes and thoughts about particular readings and sermons (consider for example 1/6/1878, 1/29/1882, and 2/16/1882). In a 1/22/1882 entry, he even notes the visit of a Mormon woman from Utah, which he later marks as a "principal personal event."
 
Alongside notes about subjects related to studies, Davenport records household chores (7/16/1881), recreational activities (walks, rides, croquet), trips (e.g. a summer visit to the New Hampshire White Mountains in 1884), cultural excursions (the American Museum of Natural History on 1/6/1879), personal readings (1/3/1881), and some of the first evidence of his interest in surveying (illustrations of a chapel hall, 1/2/1880). The young Davenport also demonstrated an unusual curiosity in current affairs and politics. For example, his first journal includes an enthusiastic account of election day (11/5-11/6/1878), and his 1881 diary features several entries dedicated to assassination of President James Garfield and ascension of Chester A. Arthur (9/26-9/30/1881). These early diaries are also some of Davenport's most playful: he self-consciously reflects on diary-writing (2/6-2/7/1878, 1878 memoranda, 1880 front matter, and 9/6/1880) and intersperses doodles to commemorate holidays (12/311878 and 2/22/1879, 5/30/1879, 6/1/1879).
 
Subsequent diaries are less narrative in nature, but illuminating their own right. Davenport maintains notebooks on subject area interests, including a journal entitled "Ornithology 1885" which includes migration charts from the American Ornithologists' Union," notebooks dedicated to topology, mineralogy, budding and regeneration, and research on the human brain (1885-1892), and various notebooks dedicated to the study of human inheritance. As Davenport's career begins to take off around the fin de siecle, he includes more notes related to lectures, seminars, student meetings, dinners, and lab work. His marriage to Gertrude Crotty surfaces in the five-year diary spanning 1899-1905 via birthday reminders (2/28/1899), city outings (9/11/1900), and notes related to their child, Janet (1/2/1899).
 
Researchers will find that Davenport's early-twentieth century diaries provide insights into his burgeoning career in genetics. In addition to notebooks pertaining to expeditions to the Biloxi, Mississippi (March 1901), Europe (September-October 1902 and 1909-10), and Mt. Washington (August 1908), a 1903 notebook features notes on "Topics of Inheritance" and allusions to work on a laboratory—almost certainly his Carnegie-funded lab in Cold Spring Harbor. Nevertheless, many of his entries could easily be confused with those of a farmer: Davenport records notes to purchase chicken feed, coal, grain, and rat poison, and a 1909-10 diary features numerous and meticulous illustrations of fish (October 1909 – March 1910). Concurrently, Davenport notes numerous meetings with leaders in genetics, botany, and zoology, including George Harrison Shull, Herbert Spencer Jennings, Edward Bagnall Poulton, Albert Francis Blakeslee, and Edmund Beecher Wilson. Perhaps most significantly, beginning around 1911, Davenport starts to reference Mary Harriman, who would later fund his work in eugenics.
 
Eugenics surface most directly in Davenport's diaries maintained throughout the 1910s and 1920s. Alongside regular visits to the "Harriman House," Davenport notes the opening of his laboratory ("Bio Lab Opens," 6/26/1912) and his increasing commitments to the field of eugenics. That includes notes on "Dwarfs of Lamar Lamar" (11/14/1911), reminders of "families to study (e.g. "chemists," "artists," "statesmen," "vocalists," and "naval" in his 1913 memoranda), and an account of "negative" and "positive eugenics" (January 1920). One notebook (dated "February 12") is less a diary than a set of eugenics lecture notes, including a "Field worker's guide" that describes the consequences of segregation, limitations of the law of heredity, and pages allocated for recording hair color, skin color, stature, mental activity, feeble-mindedness (e.g. pauperism, crime, insanity, criminality).
 
Between 1914-1930, Davenport makes numerous trips to Europe to study eugenics (including (1914, 1922, and 1929). His 1914 trip is explicitly labeled "Eugenics in Holland" (10/22). A series of loose, typed pages entitled "Diary of Trip to Europe, September 13 to October 31, 1922," includes notes on a lecture entitled "Das Mutations Problem" in Vienna (9/25) and his participation in the Second Commission of Eugenics through which he "Voted to admit Germany and all other, properly qualified countries to the Commission" (10/9). Perhaps most remarkably, at the end of that trip, Davenport records a meeting with Charles Darwin's son, Leonard: "At Lewes was met by Darwin and taken to his home in Sussex. Private conference on eugenical matters" (10/20).
 
That engagement carries home, where, in a 1930 diary, he includes a series of relevant newspaper clippings: "Racial related to a Racial Integrity Bill Signed" in Richmond, Virginia (3/14), "Extols African Marriage" (3/4), "Senate Refuses to Shelve Harris Quota Bill: Senate Again Rejects Motion by Glass aimed at Salvaging National origins Clause" (4/24), and "Dr. Adler Closes Psychology Clinic: Noted Viennese Scientist Declared Target of Medical Center Critics" (5/31). In some loose pages associated with that diary, Davenport compares a colleague (simply identified as "Gordon") to the Croatian-American geneticist Milislav Demerec: While Davenport finds Gordon "industrious and fertile in ideas," he adds that he is "not so brilliant as Demerec" (6/3).
 
Davenport's remaining diaries (1931-1944) mostly focus on various trips, with occasional mentions of the outbreak of World War II. The early-1930s feature a series of notebooks dedicated to travel in the Americas, including a "Western Trip" and "Trip to the West by Automobile" (which collectively span July-October 1931), as well as trips to Bermuda, Mexico, and Nova Scotia. The Nova Scotia trip is noteworthy because Davenport explicitly notes an encounter with Russian-American geneticist Theodosius Dobzhansky. In his late-1930s journals, World War II surfaces, if only briefly. In a diary spanning 1937-39, Davenport notes Germany's seizure of Poland (9/1/1939) and Great Britain's subsequent declaration of war (9/3/1939). Curiously, he also alludes to a "Cox: Atomic Nuclear" in multiple entries of June and July in his 1940 diary.
 
Finally, the Davenport diaries are noteworthy for their idiosyncrasies: these include at least one volume authored by his wife, and the eclectic range of ephemera include inside and alongside the diaries. In a volume signed "G.L. Davenport"—and bearing numerous allusions to "Charles and Charlie throughout—Gertrude Davenport records a series of entries between 4/1/1905 to 3/16/1913. Of particular interest is her protest of race track gambling (4/19/1908 and 4/23/1908) and the dedication to Carnegie Lab, with a note of an encounter with Andrew Carnegie, who "disappointed the department by not adding to the endowment" (1/3/1910). Alongside accounts of various farm and house work (mending garments, cleaning, and, unusual for a homemaker, making concrete blocks), this diary also notes Gertrude's reading, namely Harper's Monthly and the Century.
 
Across the series 95 diaries, Davenport includes a host of rich and sometimes peculiar ephemera: a letter, dated March 20, 1901 enclosed in an 1889 notebook, an image of Robert E. Lee (7/13/1905), a doodle of a family crest (3/17/1910), pamphlets related to ornithology (1920) and major snowstorm (2/2/1930), membership cards for the Arts Center of New York (1925) and the American Museum of Natural History (1943), Davenport's 1922 and 1925 passports, programs for a meeting of the Eugenics Research Association (6/3/1930) and a symposium on "Theory and Development" at Davenport's home (3/21/1930), train tickets to Washington (9/5/1918 and 7/9/1919), the ferry service between Staten Island and Brooklyn (5/3/1925), and the Long Island Railroad schedule (1927), receipts, deposit slips, and scraps of paper labeled everything from "OBESITY" (8/19/1915) to "Committee on Ways and Means" (1917), and even wooden toothpicks, which Davenport appeared to have used as bookmarks (9/5/1918, 10/31/1918, 3/12/1933, and 5/7/1933).
 
Although Davenport rarely uses his diaries for reflection, his enclosure of ancillary materials reveals his personal networks and popular reading. Throughout the diaries, scholars will discover business and calling cards for William Cohill (1902), Edith Reeves (1911), "Brinkerhoff" (1911), Sidney Ball (1914), "Antipodes" (1914), George Laible (1915), H. Lundborg (1923), Charles Herrman (1925), E.J. Lidbetter (1927), Gebruder Dippe (1930), H.J. Parsen (1933), and Ji-Yen Rikamaru (1937). Davenport also regularly encloses snippets from newspapers, including a piece Russian mogul named M. Rachatnikoff who sought "the improvement of the human race" (12/9/1906), Mary Harriman's purchase of land and sheep (9/25/1911), op-eds on immigration policy (9/9/1915) and access to birth control (1920), an obituary for Dwight Comstock (9/16/1932), and reports of Nassau County budget cuts (11/9/1942).
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  Selected Quotations
  • Notes encounter with Andrew Carnegie, who "disappointed the department by not adding to the endowment" (1/3/1910)

  • Compares colleague ("Gordon") to the Croatian-American geneticist Milislav Demerec: While Davenport finds Gordon "industrious and fertile in ideas," he adds that he is "not so brilliant as Demerec" (6/3/1930)
 
 Subjects:  American Agriculture Movement. | American Eugenics Society | American Museum of Natural History. | American religious cultures | American West in the twentieth century | Americans Abroad | Biology. | Brooklyn Museum | Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory | Congregationalists. | Diaries. | Expedition | Eugenics. | Europe. | Harvard University. | Meteorology. | Mineralogy. | Mormon Church. | National Institute of Social Sciences (U.S.) | Ornithology. | Princeton University. | Race. | Science. | Topology. | Travel. | United States--Politics and government. | Weather. | Whaling Museum (Cold Spring Harbor, N.Y.) | Women--History. | World War I. | World War II. | Yale Club of New York City | Zoology. 
 Collection:  Charles Benedict Davenport Papers  (Mss.B.D27)  
  Go to the collection
 
3.Title:  John Louis Haney Diaries (1887-1959)
 Dates:  1887 - 1959 
 Extent:  33 volumes  
 Locations:  Albany | Allenhurst | Allentown | Amsterdam | Andermatt | Antwerp | Ardmore | Asbury Park | Atlantic City | Baltimore | Bangor | Bar Harbor | Basel | Bellagio | Berlin | Bonn | Boston | Boulder | Braunschweig | Bremen | Brienz | Brunswick | Brussels | Bryn Mawr | Buffalo | Burlington | Cambridge | Cape May | Charlotte | Chestertown | Chicago | Cleveland | Cologne | Colorado Springs | Como | Darby | Denver | Detroit | Dieppe | Doylestown | Dresden | Easton | Eisenach | Ephrata | Falmouth | Frankfurt | Geneva | Germantown | Glenwood Springs | Goschenen | Gotha | Gottingen | Grimsel Pass | Grindelwald | Halberstadt | Hannover | Harrisonburg | Hartford | Henley-on-Thames | Hildesheim | Innsbruck | Interlochen | Ithaca | Kassel | Koblenz | Konstanz | Lancaster | Lausanne | Lauterbrunnen | Leipzig | Lindau | London | Lucerne | Lugano | Martigny | Meiringen | Milan | Montreal | Montreux | Mount Gretna | Munich | Nantucket | Natural Bridge | New Haven | New York | Nuremberg | Ottawa | Ouray | Oxford | Paris | Peak's Island | Philadelphia | Pittsburgh | Plymouth | Point Pleasant | Portland, Maine | Princeton | Providence | Regensburg | Rheinsberg | Rockland | Rotterdam | Rouen | Saint Louis | Salisbury | Schaffhausen | Sea Isle City | Seaside Park | Springfield | Strasbourg | Stratford | Stuttgart | Swarthmore | Syracuse | The Hague | Toronto | Trenton | Turka | Utrecht | Valley Forge | Venice | Verona | Vitznau | Washington D.C. | Weimar | Wilmington | Worcester | Zurich 
 Abstract:  John Louis Haney papers contain 33 volumes that Haney maintained from the age of 10 until a year before his death (1887-1959). The first twelve volumes are devoted to his educations (including Sunday School, German School, and the University of Pennsylvania), whereas subsequent volumes trace his career as professor of English (1900-1920) and president of Philadelphia's Central High School (1920-1943), during which Haney published numerous books on Coleridge and Shakespeare. These volumes may interest a host of different scholars—certainly those exploring twentieth-century education and the field of literary criticism—but well as those researching the Great Depression, the 1933 World's Fair, twentieth century U.S. politics (particularly for conservative critique of F.D.R.), the institutional history of the American Philosophical Society (in which Haney was elected a member in 1929), and the history of the Spanish-American War, World War I, and World War II. Researchers may also choose to mine this collection for its rich ephemera, including self-portraits interspersed in diaries (e.g. 1898, 1904-6, 1910-13, 1918-22), as well as an ancillary book of newspaper clippings, a folder of other ephemera, and two volumes of his personal reading lists. 
    
Researchers interested in Haney's biography will find that these volumes meticulously document his education, literary interests, and career. Volumes from the 1890s capture his voracious reading habits. For example, in August 1895, he reads and comments upon Charles Darwin's Descent of Man (8/11) and the Bible (8/18) in the same week. Throughout his journals, Haney provides a useful homespun index at the end of each journal. Beginning in 1898, he adds annual reviews in which he takes stock of his progress. (Those reviews become so exhaustive that, by 1907, he begins adding subcategories of assessment, such as "My Relation to the World At Large," "Literary Work," "Travel," "People Whom I Met," "Drama & Music," "Reading," "Financial," "Family Affairs"). Scholars interested in Philadelphia regional history will note that these early volumes recount Haney frequent visits to book dealer A.S.W. Rosenbach, during which the two discuss books and university affairs (e.g. 6/10/1896, 8/17/1899).
 
Haney's professional career begins in earnest in 1900, when he accepts his position at Central High School. While he acknowledges the significance of the offer at the time (6/29/1900), Haney reflects at greater length in a later entry (9/4/1935). In that year's annual review, he summarizes his progress: "I am inclined to regard 1900 as the most significant year thus far…the development of the bibliography, our experience at Washington and New York
 
the completion of my first novel
 
the work on my thesis
 
my appointment at the High School--truly a diversified array of interests." While Haney's bibliography of Coleridge wouldn't be published for some time (he celebrates receipt of his copy on 9/1/1903), the next twenty years bring significant milestones in his career: Haney becomes department chair (1905 review) and, after a "strenuous campaign," is elected president of Central High School (1920 review).
 
Alongside his literary interests, Haney proves a studious observer of contemporary economics and world affairs. Although he evinces sympathies for laissez-faire capitalism (reference an excerpt from the 1926 annual review), Haney records labor strikes from the 1890s (12/17-18/1895 and 1/3/1896), Black Tuesday (10/29/29, 1929 annual review), and the lived experience of the Great Depression (1930-34 annual reviews). Haney also visits the Chicago World's Fair (1933 review) and discusses the Blizzard of 1899 (2/10/1899), Charles Lindbergh's transatlantic flight (5/21/1927), the discovery of Pluto (1930 review), Hughes' flight around the world (1938 review), and Russia's launch of a satellite, which he calls a "catastrophe for the West" (1957 review).
 
Haney also demonstrates a sustained interest in domestic (Republican) politics. After the McKinley assassination, he recounts reports of news over almost two weeks (9/7-9/19/1901). He reports considerable excitement concerning President Roosevelt's visit to CHS (11/12/1902), and celebrates the electoral gains of our "virile president" (11/9/1904). (Haney thinks less highly of President Wilson.) He records ratification of women's suffrage (1920 annual review), repeal of 18th Amendment, and passage of the 20th and 21st Amendments (1933 review). A tireless critic of F.D.R., Haney bemoans his election (11/8-9/1932) and reelections (1936 review, 11/6/1940, 11/8/1944), needling his "imprudent Supreme Court Packing idea" (1937 review) and fretting that, "A new American Gestapo set up in Washington is ready to hound any citizen who criticizes the Government" (1944 review). In fact, Haney's critiques of F.D.R. offer a window into conservative backlash against the New Deal, as excerpted in Selected Quotations (1935 review). In one of his final journals, he also notes the emergence of new racial coalitions associated with the Civil Rights era, writing, "The Negroes, once grateful to the G.O.P. for bringing about their liberation in the South, have turned their backs on the Republicans and cheerfully vote for politicians who given them untold millions in 'relief' of every sort" (1957 review).
 
Finally, war historians will discover countless accounts of U.S. military activity between the Spanish-American War and World War II. Haney celebrates the destruction of Pascual Cervera y Topete's naval fleet (7/4/1898), and notes with increasing alarm the "gathering war clouds in Europe" (7/30/1914, 1914 annual review). In his next annual review, he mourns Western civilization: "The year 1915 has probably been the most discreditable year since the dawn of civilization-discreditable to civilization and to all that such a state of existence implies. The Great European War, begun about August 1st of the previous year, ran a full twelve-month of slaughter during 1915 with no end in sight…The good name of Germany and of the Teutonic culture has been thrown to the winds. The future of the world's peace demands the defeat of the power that stands for militarism and for brute force" (1915 review). Haney marks Armistice Day as "one of the remarkable days of my life" (11/11/1918), but he soon finds himself profoundly disappointed with reconstruction efforts, as excerpted in Selected Quotations (1920 annual review). Haney's 1920s and 1930s entries offer a sobering account of the failures of League of Nations and the rise of Hitler and Mussolini. His volumes record milestones of World War II, from the attack on Pearl Harbor (12/7/1941) to the bombing of Hiroshima (8/6-7/1941). "It was epochal," writes Haney. "Papers & radio features the devastating atomic bomb. A new age has begun" (8/7/1941).
 
    
John Louis Haney papers contain 33 volumes that Haney maintained from the age of 10 until a year before his death (1887-1959). The first twelve volumes are devoted to his educations (including Sunday School, German School, and the University of Pennsylvania), whereas subsequent volumes trace his career as professor of English (1900-1920) and president of Philadelphia's Central High School (1920-1943), during which Haney published numerous books on Coleridge and Shakespeare. These volumes may interest a host of different scholars—certainly those exploring twentieth-century education and the field of literary criticism—but well as those researching the Great Depression, the 1933 World's Fair, twentieth century U.S. politics (particularly for conservative critique of F.D.R.), the institutional history of the American Philosophical Society (in which Haney was elected a member in 1929), and the history of the Spanish-American War, World War I, and World War II. Researchers may also choose to mine this collection for its rich ephemera, including self-portraits interspersed in diaries (e.g. 1898, 1904-6, 1910-13, 1918-22), as well as an ancillary book of newspaper clippings, a folder of other ephemera, and two volumes of his personal reading lists.
 
Researchers interested in Haney's biography will find that these volumes meticulously document his education, literary interests, and career. Volumes from the 1890s capture his voracious reading habits. For example, in August 1895, he reads and comments upon Charles Darwin's Descent of Man (8/11) and the Bible (8/18) in the same week. Throughout his journals, Haney provides a useful homespun index at the end of each journal. Beginning in 1898, he adds annual reviews in which he takes stock of his progress. (Those reviews become so exhaustive that, by 1907, he begins adding subcategories of assessment, such as "My Relation to the World At Large," "Literary Work," "Travel," "People Whom I Met," "Drama & Music," "Reading," "Financial," "Family Affairs"). Scholars interested in Philadelphia regional history will note that these early volumes recount Haney frequent visits to book dealer A.S.W. Rosenbach, during which the two discuss books and university affairs (e.g. 6/10/1896, 8/17/1899).
 
Haney's professional career begins in earnest in 1900, when he accepts his position at Central High School. While he acknowledges the significance of the offer at the time (6/29/1900), Haney reflects at greater length in a later entry (9/4/1935). In that year's annual review, he summarizes his progress: "I am inclined to regard 1900 as the most significant year thus far…the development of the bibliography, our experience at Washington and New York
 
the completion of my first novel
 
the work on my thesis
 
my appointment at the High School--truly a diversified array of interests." While Haney's bibliography of Coleridge wouldn't be published for some time (he celebrates receipt of his copy on 9/1/1903), the next twenty years bring significant milestones in his career: Haney becomes department chair (1905 review) and, after a "strenuous campaign," is elected president of Central High School (1920 review).
 
Alongside his literary interests, Haney proves a studious observer of contemporary economics and world affairs. Although he evinces sympathies for laissez-faire capitalism (reference an excerpt from the 1926 annual review), Haney records labor strikes from the 1890s (12/17-18/1895 and 1/3/1896), Black Tuesday (10/29/29, 1929 annual review), and the lived experience of the Great Depression (1930-34 annual reviews). Haney also visits the Chicago World's Fair (1933 review) and discusses the Blizzard of 1899 (2/10/1899), Charles Lindbergh's transatlantic flight (5/21/1927), the discovery of Pluto (1930 review), Hughes' flight around the world (1938 review), and Russia's launch of a satellite, which he calls a "catastrophe for the West" (1957 review).
 
Haney also demonstrates a sustained interest in domestic (Republican) politics. After the McKinley assassination, he recounts reports of news over almost two weeks (9/7-9/19/1901). He reports considerable excitement concerning President Roosevelt's visit to CHS (11/12/1902), and celebrates the electoral gains of our "virile president" (11/9/1904). (Haney thinks less highly of President Wilson.) He records ratification of women's suffrage (1920 annual review), repeal of 18th Amendment, and passage of the 20th and 21st Amendments (1933 review). A tireless critic of F.D.R., Haney bemoans his election (11/8-9/1932) and reelections (1936 review, 11/6/1940, 11/8/1944), needling his "imprudent Supreme Court Packing idea" (1937 review) and fretting that, "A new American Gestapo set up in Washington is ready to hound any citizen who criticizes the Government" (1944 review). In fact, Haney's critiques of F.D.R. offer a window into conservative backlash against the New Deal, as excerpted in Selected Quotations (1935 review). In one of his final journals, he also notes the emergence of new racial coalitions associated with the Civil Rights era, writing, "The Negroes, once grateful to the G.O.P. for bringing about their liberation in the South, have turned their backs on the Republicans and cheerfully vote for politicians who given them untold millions in 'relief' of every sort" (1957 review).
 
Finally, war historians will discover countless accounts of U.S. military activity between the Spanish-American War and World War II. Haney celebrates the destruction of Pascual Cervera y Topete's naval fleet (7/4/1898), and notes with increasing alarm the "gathering war clouds in Europe" (7/30/1914, 1914 annual review). In his next annual review, he mourns Western civilization: "The year 1915 has probably been the most discreditable year since the dawn of civilization-discreditable to civilization and to all that such a state of existence implies. The Great European War, begun about August 1st of the previous year, ran a full twelve-month of slaughter during 1915 with no end in sight…The good name of Germany and of the Teutonic culture has been thrown to the winds. The future of the world's peace demands the defeat of the power that stands for militarism and for brute force" (1915 review). Haney marks Armistice Day as "one of the remarkable days of my life" (11/11/1918), but he soon finds himself profoundly disappointed with reconstruction efforts, as excerpted in Selected Quotations (1920 annual review). Haney's 1920s and 1930s entries offer a sobering account of the failures of League of Nations and the rise of Hitler and Mussolini. His volumes record milestones of World War II, from the attack on Pearl Harbor (12/7/1941) to the bombing of Hiroshima (8/6-7/1941). "It was epochal," writes Haney. "Papers & radio features the devastating atomic bomb. A new age has begun" (8/7/1941).
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  Selected Quotations
  • "A year ago I recorded that 1919 was a disappointing year. In some respects, 1920 was still more disappointing. We are still in a state of war with Germany, the League of Nations seems to be destined for the scrapheap. Woodrow Wilson is still a very sick man, the Bolsheviks still reign in Moscow, Germany is still whining and trying to evade the terms of the Versailles Treaty, France and England are growing jealous and distrustful of each other, the Irish have had their fill of assassination and contemptable [outlaws], and America has gone through a full twelve-month of declining financial values & business slump…" (1920 review)

  • "It was a year of continued general prosperity and the highest standard of living ever attained by humanity. Such an abundance of wealth and widespread participation in the comforts and luxuries of civilization would have staggered the imagination. The hard-working man of today accepts as his right the conveniences that were the prerogative of the millionaire not so long ago" (1926 review)

  • "Conservatives of both parties noted with rejoicing satisfaction the waning popularity of Pres. Roosevelt, the temperamental playboy of Washington who philandered too long with the fair coquette Miss Socialism" (1935 review)

  • "A year ago I recorded that 1942 was possibly the most destructive year in human history. 1943 was still more so and on an incredible scale of loss for all of the human race and everything that civilization stands for" (1943 review)
 
 Subjects:  Air travel | Atomic history and culture | Blizzards. | Booksellers and bookselling. | Central High School (Philadelphia, Pa.) | Cold War. | Diaries. | Education. | Europe. | Labor--History. | Literature. | Republican Party (U.S. : 1854- ) | Rosenbach Museum & Library | Science. | Space flight. | Spanish-American War, 1898. | Travel. | United States--Civilization--1918-1945. | United States--Civilization--1945- | United States--Politics and government. | Weather. | World War I. | World War II. 
 Collection:  John Louis Haney papers  (Mss.B.H196)  
  Go to the collection
 
4.Title:  John Warner Diaries (1862-1872)
 Dates:  1862 - 1872 
 Extent:  55 volumes  
 Locations:  Aberdeen | Agrigento | Airolo | Alexandria | Altdorf | Amsterdam | Angers | Athens | Baden-Baden | Barcelona | Bari | Barletta | Basel | Beirut | Belgrade | Berlin | Bern | Birkenhead | Bologna | Boston | Brienz | Bringen | Bristol | Bruchsal | Bruges | Brussels | Budapest | Cadiz | Cairo | Calais | Cambridge | Campodolcino | Capri | Carnac | Chateaulin | Cherbourg | Civitavecchia | Cologne | Como | Copenhagen | Cordoba | Dresden | Edinburgh | Einsiedeln | Empoli | Fano | Finale Ligure | Florence | Floridia | Fluelen | Frankfurt | Freiburg | Gdansk | Geneva | Genoa | Glasgow | Gloucester | Goschenen | Goslar | Granada | Greenock | Grindelwald | Haarlem | Hamburg | Heidelberg | Helsinki | Interlaken | Istanbul | Jerusalem | Kazan | Kehl | Konstanz | Larnaca | Leipzig | Linz | Liverpool | London | Lubeck | Lucca | Lucerne | Ludwigshafen | Luxembourg City | Lyon | Mainz | Malmo | Manchester | Manheim | Martigny | Międzyrzecz | Milan | Moscow | Mount Carmel | Nablus | Nantes | Nazareth | Neuhaus | Newcastle | Nicolosi | Nottingham | Novara | Nuremberg | Oradea | Palermo | Paris | Patmos | Perth, Scotland | Perugia | Pescara | Philadelphia | Piraeus | Pisa | Plouharnel | Pompeii | Potsdam | Pottstown | Pottsville | Preston | Ravenna | Reichenau | Reichenbach Falls | Rhodes | Rhone Glacier | Rome | Roskilde | Saint Gallen | Saint Petersburg | Saint-etienne | Salzburg | Samos | Sempach | Siena | Sissach | Solothurn | Staffa | Stockholm | Stuttgart | Suez | Sulechow | Swiebodzin | Taormina | Thun | Tiberias | Trieste | Turin | Uppsala | Utrecht | Valencia | Vatican | Veliky Novgorod | Venice | Verona | Versailles | Vienna | Vyborg | Washington D.C. | Wetterhorn | Wiesbaden | Witham | Wittenberg | Worcester, United Kingdom | York | Zurich 
 Abstract:  With 55 volumes spanning 7/8/1862-11/23/1872, the John Warner diaries provide a detailed account of his time abroad (1862-1868) and travels throughout Europe. Although many entries are devoted to talks and lectures (mostly pertaining to zoology), Warner proves also a studious observer of people, cultures, and cultural and religious institutions, which he records through numerous sketches and ephemera. In fact, these volumes present a wealth of research opportunities for scholars of material culture, thanks to Warner's curation of nineteenth-century newspaper clippings, advertisements, programs, and personal illustrations. 
    
Warner's diaries provide an intimate record of his far-flung travels. Alongside visits to zoological and mineralogical collections, Warner patronizes numerous places of worship, for which he often provides sketches of murals and architectural features. (His most impressive color illustrations begin around March 1863). Notably, he visits a Jewish synagogue in the Netherlands (10/13/1862) and a mosque in the Middle East (3/31/1865). He copies verses from a tombstone (9/8/1862), and when he tours the Egyptian pyramids, he records hieroglyphics (4/26/1865). He encloses descriptions of natural scenes—e.g. the Wetterhorn (8/31/1862) and Rhone Glacier (9/4/1862)—and also urban spaces, including a locomotive works in Amsterdam (1/26/1863), a foundry in Greenock (1/30/1863), a prison in York (4/7/1863), a gypsy settlement in Romania (6/13/1865), and even an early account of the Grand Kremlin Palace (8/2/1868).
 
Throughout those travels, Warner recollects his native Pennsylvania to draw evocative geographic and social comparisons. For example, he equates a town outside Belgrade to Burlington on the Delaware (6/9/1865). Upon meeting a foreman at machine shop, he compares the conditions of the poor in America and Germany (8/25/1862). Of particular note, he compares the governor of Nazareth to a "Philadelphia negro" (4/15/1865).
 
At various points in his travels, Warner is compelled to confront U.S. domestic affairs, most especially the Civil War. For example, traveling by rail in Germany in late-1865, he writes, "Met in the [train] car Mr. Joseph Kommer, Lincoln Logan Co., Illinois, a few months back to Germany, now on his way home via Hamburg. He had served in the Northern Army
 
related many things respecting the war and was a good union man" (11/8/1865). Several years later, he visits a castle where he notes a "revolver presented to the King by President Lincoln" (7/9/1868). Although Warner rarely discusses politics directly, he registers his own political activities and sympathies. For example, he attends a "Peace Society" (5/19/1863), a "temperance tea" (9/15/1863), and a lecture on "dwellings for workingmen" (1/6/1866). He records at least one conversation about U.S. nativist movements, particularly the Astor Place Riots, writing, "Met an Irishman who had been in the U.S. some years ago. He doubted whether the Irish, in New York had been incited—as a clan, especially—to take part in the late New York riots, and on account of jealousy of the blacks as competitors for work—he was further opposed to Mr. Lincoln's emancipation edict" (8/18/1863). In another prescient entry, he records an exchange with a Polish miller about poll taxes. "A miller spoke to me, among other subjects, of Poland," Warner writes. "He said Austria and Prussia assist to subjugate Poland, because 'they are all tyrants together.' Of our country, he said there would soon be poll tax" (9/14/1864).
 
When it comes to the topic of slavery, Warner reveals abolitionist sympathies via ephemera. He encloses a newspaper clipping from "Aborigine Protection Society," after which he remarks on the emigration of freed slaves to Liberia (5/20/1863), and encloses another clipping entitled "Negro Emancipation" (6/17/1863).
 
Scholars of nineteenth century material culture will be richly rewarded by the diaries. Alongside hand-drawn maps of buildings, cities, and architectural features, Warner encloses numerous newspaper clippings (e.g. (1/10/1863), engravings (9/27/1864), advertisements (7/9/1865), and theatrical programs (10/6/1865). While the majority of those materials are in English, some ephemera—and Warner's own entries—are in German, French, or Italian.
 
    
With 55 volumes spanning 7/8/1862-11/23/1872, the John Warner diaries provide a detailed account of his time abroad (1862-1868) and travels throughout Europe. Although many entries are devoted to talks and lectures (mostly pertaining to zoology), Warner proves also a studious observer of people, cultures, and cultural and religious institutions, which he records through numerous sketches and ephemera. In fact, these volumes present a wealth of research opportunities for scholars of material culture, thanks to Warner's curation of nineteenth-century newspaper clippings, advertisements, programs, and personal illustrations.
 
Warner's diaries provide an intimate record of his far-flung travels. Alongside visits to zoological and mineralogical collections, Warner patronizes numerous places of worship, for which he often provides sketches of murals and architectural features. (His most impressive color illustrations begin around March 1863). Notably, he visits a Jewish synagogue in the Netherlands (10/13/1862) and a mosque in the Middle East (3/31/1865). He copies verses from a tombstone (9/8/1862), and when he tours the Egyptian pyramids, he records hieroglyphics (4/26/1865). He encloses descriptions of natural scenes—e.g. the Wetterhorn (8/31/1862) and Rhone Glacier (9/4/1862)—and also urban spaces, including a locomotive works in Amsterdam (1/26/1863), a foundry in Greenock (1/30/1863), a prison in York (4/7/1863), a gypsy settlement in Romania (6/13/1865), and even an early account of the Grand Kremlin Palace (8/2/1868).
 
Throughout those travels, Warner recollects his native Pennsylvania to draw evocative geographic and social comparisons. For example, he equates a town outside Belgrade to Burlington on the Delaware (6/9/1865). Upon meeting a foreman at machine shop, he compares the conditions of the poor in America and Germany (8/25/1862). Of particular note, he compares the governor of Nazareth to a "Philadelphia negro" (4/15/1865).
 
At various points in his travels, Warner is compelled to confront U.S. domestic affairs, most especially the Civil War. For example, traveling by rail in Germany in late-1865, he writes, "Met in the [train] car Mr. Joseph Kommer, Lincoln Logan Co., Illinois, a few months back to Germany, now on his way home via Hamburg. He had served in the Northern Army
 
related many things respecting the war and was a good union man" (11/8/1865). Several years later, he visits a castle where he notes a "revolver presented to the King by President Lincoln" (7/9/1868). Although Warner rarely discusses politics directly, he registers his own political activities and sympathies. For example, he attends a "Peace Society" (5/19/1863), a "temperance tea" (9/15/1863), and a lecture on "dwellings for workingmen" (1/6/1866). He records at least one conversation about U.S. nativist movements, particularly the Astor Place Riots, writing, "Met an Irishman who had been in the U.S. some years ago. He doubted whether the Irish, in New York had been incited—as a clan, especially—to take part in the late New York riots, and on account of jealousy of the blacks as competitors for work—he was further opposed to Mr. Lincoln's emancipation edict" (8/18/1863). In another prescient entry, he records an exchange with a Polish miller about poll taxes. "A miller spoke to me, among other subjects, of Poland," Warner writes. "He said Austria and Prussia assist to subjugate Poland, because 'they are all tyrants together.' Of our country, he said there would soon be poll tax" (9/14/1864).
 
When it comes to the topic of slavery, Warner reveals abolitionist sympathies via ephemera. He encloses a newspaper clipping from "Aborigine Protection Society," after which he remarks on the emigration of freed slaves to Liberia (5/20/1863), and encloses another clipping entitled "Negro Emancipation" (6/17/1863).
 
Scholars of nineteenth century material culture will be richly rewarded by the diaries. Alongside hand-drawn maps of buildings, cities, and architectural features, Warner encloses numerous newspaper clippings (e.g. (1/10/1863), engravings (9/27/1864), advertisements (7/9/1865), and theatrical programs (10/6/1865). While the majority of those materials are in English, some ephemera—and Warner's own entries—are in German, French, or Italian.
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  Selected Quotations
  • "Met an Irishman who had been in the U.S. some years ago. He doubted whether the Irish, in New York had been incited—as a clan, especially—to take part in the late New York riots, and on account of jealousy of the blacks as competitors for work—he was further opposed to Mr. Lincoln's emancipation edict" (8/18/1863)

  • "a miller spoke to me, among other subjects, of Poland. He said Austria and Prussia assist to subjugate Poland, because 'they are all tyrants together.' Of our country, he said there would soon be poll tax" (9/14/1864)

  • "In the evening to the Schlon Theater – Play, Leonora. Passably well played—the scenery poor. I think I have seen the same play better performed in the German theater of Philadelphia" (8/17/1865)
 
 Subjects:  American Civil War, 1861-1865 | American Colonization Society. | Catholic Church. | Diaries. | Engineering. | Europe. | Judaism. | Middle East. | Morphology. | Naturalism. | Palestine. | Railroad | Religion. | Science. | Slavery. | Society of Friends. | Temperance. | United States--Politics and government. | Weather. | Zoology. 
 Collection:  John Warner letters and papers, 1850-1864  (Mss.B.W243)  
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