1. | Title: | Rebecca Gratz and Sarah G. Moses Diaries (1807, 1832-1846) | |
Dates: | 1807 - 1846 | ||
Extent: | 8 volumes | ||
Locations: | Baltimore | Charleston | Cleveland | Detroit | Lexington | Nashville | New York | Niagara Falls | Philadelphia | Richmond | Rochester | Savannah | Washington D.C. | Wheeling | Wilmington, North Carolina | ||
Abstract: | The Gratz Family Papers include at least two bound volumes and six travel diary fragments of Jewish women in the antebellum period (1807-1846). The first, dated 1807, recounts a trip taken by Rebecca Gratz from Louisville to Nashville in the early national period (6/3-12/8/1807). The second bound volume can be definitively attributed to Sarah G. Moses, although the handwriting in the other fragments bears some resemblance. Recorded between 8/9-11/2/1832, Moses' bound volume recounts Philadelphia local affairs, weather, her recreational activities (e.g. reading, sewing, and embroidery), education, and religious practices (Moses makes numerous mentions of going to "Synagogue"). Notably, she frets the cholera epidemic in an early entry, excerpted in Selected Quotations (8/9/1832). Two diary fragments recount travels from New York City upstate (7/27-8/6/1842) as well as a trip between Savannah and Richmond (commenced 4/30/1846). The remaining fragments were clearly recorded in the antebellum period, but are difficult to date: There's a fragment recounting a trip between Saint Louis and Lexington, another (possibly related) fragment that details a journey from Lexington through the Alleghenies and finally to Baltimore, and two distinct midwestern tours that take the diarist from Lake Michigan to the Mississippi River and from Detroit to Cleveland. Notably, the latter journey must have been recorded sometime between the mid-1830s and mid-1840s, as it references an animated conversation with a Locofoco on a stagecoach (also excerpted in Selected Quotations). These fragments ought to interest scholars researching women's history, Jewish studies, and appalachia and the American South during the antebellum period. | ||
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The Gratz Family Papers include at least two bound volumes and six travel diary fragments of Jewish women in the antebellum period (1807-1846). The first, dated 1807, recounts a trip taken by Rebecca Gratz from Louisville to Nashville in the early national period (6/3-12/8/1807). The second bound volume can be definitively attributed to Sarah G. Moses, although the handwriting in the other fragments bears some resemblance. Recorded between 8/9-11/2/1832, Moses' bound volume recounts Philadelphia local affairs, weather, her recreational activities (e.g. reading, sewing, and embroidery), education, and religious practices (Moses makes numerous mentions of going to "Synagogue"). Notably, she frets the cholera epidemic in an early entry, excerpted in Selected Quotations (8/9/1832). Two diary fragments recount travels from New York City upstate (7/27-8/6/1842) as well as a trip between Savannah and Richmond (commenced 4/30/1846). The remaining fragments were clearly recorded in the antebellum period, but are difficult to date: There's a fragment recounting a trip between Saint Louis and Lexington, another (possibly related) fragment that details a journey from Lexington through the Alleghenies and finally to Baltimore, and two distinct midwestern tours that take the diarist from Lake Michigan to the Mississippi River and from Detroit to Cleveland. Notably, the latter journey must have been recorded sometime between the mid-1830s and mid-1840s, as it references an animated conversation with a Locofoco on a stagecoach (also excerpted in Selected Quotations). These fragments ought to interest scholars researching women's history, Jewish studies, and appalachia and the American South during the antebellum period. View Full Description in New Window | |||
Selected Quotations
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Subjects: | Diaries. | Cholera. | Philadelphia history | Travel. | United States--Civilization--1783-1865. | United States--Politics and government--1783-1865. | Women--History. | ||
Collection: | Gratz Family Papers (Mss.Ms.Coll.72) | ||
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