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 James Brindley Diaries contain two volumes related to his work on the Susquehanna, Conewago, Chesapeake, and Delaware canals. The first, entitled "Susquehanna and Conewago Canal Diary" (9/2/1794-1/20/1795) features highly detailed entries with significant technical data related to the project. Interspersed throughout, Brindley remarks on technical and logistical problems he encounters. For example, he notes that after the Canal Board fails to provide wages to workers, he has to advance funds to purchase tools. Perhaps most notably, he records the tensions related to Whiskey Rebellion in western Pennsylvania in an extended passage excerpted in Selected Quotations. The volume also includes drafts of letters to William Smith and Robert Morris.
 
The second volume, "Chesapeake and Delaware Canal Diary" (1/18-6/10/1803) recounts his early work on the Chesapeake and Delaware Canals, which would not be completed for another twenty-five years on account of funding problems. Brindley registers those issues in his early diary, discussing some of the legal and financial problems facing the project.

An engineer in the early national period, James Brindley worked on a host of canal projects in the United States, including the Potomac Canal in Maryland and the James River Canal in Virginia. His diaries, available in two volumes, document his work on the Susquehanna and Conewago Canal in 1794-1795 and the Chesapeake and Delaware Canal in 1803. The Conewago Canal, financed by Robert Morris and completed in 1797, improved access to Philadelphia markets. While the Chesapeake and Delaware Canal was debated as early as the 1760s, it was not funded until 1802 (and continued funding challenges would delay its completion for another 25 years). Brindley served as the lead engineer for both projects, and his journal provides valuable insights into early-nineteenth century canals and engineering, the Whiskey Rebellion, and U.S. government funding problems in the early national period.
 
The James Brindley Diaries contain two volumes related to his work on the Susquehanna, Conewago, Chesapeake, and Delaware canals. The first, entitled "Susquehanna and Conewago Canal Diary" (9/2/1794-1/20/1795) features highly detailed entries with significant technical data related to the project. Interspersed throughout, Brindley remarks on technical and logistical problems he encounters. For example, he notes that after the Canal Board fails to provide wages to workers, he has to advance funds to purchase tools. Perhaps most notably, he records the tensions related to Whiskey Rebellion in western Pennsylvania in an extended passage excerpted in Selected Quotations. The volume also includes drafts of letters to William Smith and Robert Morris.
 
The second volume, "Chesapeake and Delaware Canal Diary" (1/18-6/10/1803) recounts his early work on the Chesapeake and Delaware Canals, which would not be completed for another twenty-five years on account of funding problems. Brindley registers those issues in his early diary, discussing some of the legal and financial problems facing the project.

The meteorological observations contain at least 30 volumes spanning 1748-1822. Maintained by William Adair, Peter Legaux, James Madison, Phineas Pemberton, and other prominent figures from the early national period, these volumes capture meteorological data, thermometer readings, winds, and occasionally longitudes, latitudes, graphs, and miscellaneous notes. Phineas Pemberton recorded approximately half of the volumes, in or around Philadelphia during colonial and revolutionary period (August 1748-December 1776). Other volumes record meteorological data from New England (Samuel Williams), Natchez (William Dunbar), and Peru and northern Chile (Samuel Curson). Scholars researching late-eighteenth and early-nineteenth weather conditions will be well-served by this collection.
 

The Collinson-Bartram Papers include a fragment of a 1762 diary maintained by Peter Collinson, an English merchant and botanist. In some respects, this four-page fragment might be better termed a commonplace book. One of the leaves features extracts from a 1711 publication with notable events of 1709 and 1710, including the arrival of the Palatines ("Lived in Tents"), the plague, the "wrongful" execution of Charles Dean, and the knighting of Charles Wagner. The other pages include several entries (8/7-8/10/1762) in which Collinson refers to various plants and gardens. Although the Finding Aid identifies a second diary fragment dated 1/23/1764, that entry is actually a letter in a correspondence with the Duke of Richmond.
 

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 journal of Nevins' fellow traveler Joshua Gilpin was published in the Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography 46 (1922). That volume provides a complementary perspective on a portion of Nevins' journey.

The Pim Nevins journal chronicles the travels of an English Quaker in the mid-Atlantic and provides an outsider's perspective of American religion, urban space, and economic affairs during the early national period (1802-1803). The Nevins journal features descriptions of various American cities (including New York, Philadelphia, and Washington D.C.) and introspective accounts of Quaker meetings. For those interested in visual culture, Nevins includes a watercolor illustration of the Delaware Water Gap. The Nevins journal may interest researchers investigating natural history, American urban space, and religious practice during the Second Great Awakening, most especially that of the Society of Friends.
 
The journal of Nevins' fellow traveler Joshua Gilpin was published in the Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography 46 (1922). That volume provides a complementary perspective on a portion of Nevins' journey.

The vast majority of the 33 volumes listed as "diaries" in the Raymond Pearl Papers might be better described as common-place books, though the collection includes at least six unbound volumes that might be accurately classified as diaries. Most of these entries pertain to various recreational European trips taken between 1905-1928. The 1905 diary includes numerous accounts of sightseeing in London, including visits to Kew Gardens (9/28), the Tower of London (9/30), and a theater, which Pearl compares to that of the United States (10/18). Pearl uses the next two journals, from 1916 and 1917 respectively, as field notebooks with miscellaneous accounts. These volumes will likely most interest scholars researching his biography and contributions to biology. A journal from 1918 includes a mix of typed and handwritten entries documenting a trip to Europe by steamship. Finally, the last two volumes might very well have been co-authored by both Raymond and Maud Dewitt Pearl. The first, a loosely bound journal bearing the dates "1924, 1927" appears to have been maintained by both Pearls. The second, dated 1928, appears to have been kept by Maud, especially given all of the third-person references to Raymond Pearl ("R.P."). Both "1924, 1927" and "1928" recount travels in England, France, and, to a lesser extent, Germany. These diaries, while quite limited in nature, may interest scholars researching Europe in the early-twentieth century, biology, and the history of science more broadly.
 

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.
 

Robert Cushman Murphy was not only one of the twentieth century's great ornithologists, but also one of his field's most-ranging travelers. Visiting every continent—with the notable exclusion of Africa and the notable inclusion of Antarctica—Murphy's diaries and journals, which number at least 36 volumes, offer nearly six decades (1912-1971) of detailed observations of Australia, Asia, Europe, and North and South America. Those volumes include glimpses of the Florida everglades in the early-twentieth century ("Florida Fisheries, 1919"), post-war London ("European Trip, May - August 1950"), postcolonial India ("Around the World: A Circumnavigation"), and Antarctica in the early-1960s ("Operation Deep Freeze: Antarctic Cruise, 1960"). Although Murphy proves most adept in his observations of wild life, he also captures a sense of the people and places he encounters through the generous inclusion of ephemera such as newspaper clippings, photographs, postcards, programs, and sketches. In fact, many of his later journals more closely resemble scrapbooks than diaries. Perhaps most notably, Murphy maintains a journal related to one of the last whaling voyages by sailboat in the Atlantic, "The Way of the Sperm Whaler" (June 1912-1913). In addition to typed and handwritten entries feature with detailed technical data on processing whales at sea, Murphy includes dozens of original photos, and a wealth of ephemera, including even a piece of sperm whale skin. (The American Philosophical Society also possesses the signed publication of the journal, A Dead Whale or a Stove Boat, 1967.) Read in tandem with the Grace E. Barstow Murphy diaries (Mss.B.M957.g), researchers will discover a textured record of mid-century conservation.
 

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.

The Thomas Lloyd Collection is a slender volume that is part account book, part notebook, part commonplace book, and part diary. Although its cover describes it as a "letter book," there are only a few copies of letters inside. Llyod was the first recorder of Congress, who later found himself imprisoned in Newgate Prison in London for debt. This volume covers Lloyd's period in London, as he failed in his publishing ventures and spent time in prison. Among the items recorded was a proposal to develop textile manufacturing in the United States. There are also examples of shorthand.
 

John Lyon's botany journal offers a record of travels in the eastern U.S. at the turn of nineteenth century. The volume includes memoranda dated 1799, with entries spanning 9/6/1802-8/6/1814. Lyon's entries document expenses—plants purchased and collected—with occasional notes about the places and peoples he encounters. Entries related to his travels in the eastern and southeastern U.S. record a visit to plantations (4/23/1803), an Indian settlement in Georgia (7/19/1803), and medical treatments for palsy, jaundice, and cancer (12/1/1808). Notably, Lyon discusses an albino slave in Athens, Georgia, as excerpted in Selected Quotations (9/25/1804). In the spring of 1806, he records travel to Dublin, Liverpool, and London. Thus, while the Lyon journal will certainly appeal to researchers exploring nineteenth century botany, they also feature content with wider appeal, such as U.S. slavery, transatlantic travel, indigenous trade, and antebellum medicine.
 

The John Pershouse papers contain two volumes of genealogical data from the late-eighteenth century, two letter books thought to belong to his nephew (Henry Pershouse), and one travel journal. The journal is noteworthy because it furnishes accounts of transatlantic travel in the early national period. While the first entry notes Pershouse's departure from Liverpool to Boston on a 56-day voyage (2/1/1800), regular entries begin around 1826 and continue to late-1838. As a Philadelphia merchant, Pershouse regularly records distances, accounts, and sights in Europe and the United States. Notably, he travels on a ship under the command of a Captain Matlack (presumably Timothy Matlack), travels extensively in the U.S. Southeast and Midwest, and notes the outbreak of the Belgian Revolution in 1830—all excerpted in Selected Quotations. Researchers interested in U.S. domestic and transatlantic travel during the antebellum period ought to find this volume particularly useful.
 

Luna Bergere Leopold Papers contain a truly remarkable set of field notes and journals traversing some 75 years (1931-2006). The son of the famous conservationist Aldo Leopold, Luna Loeopold enjoyed a long and multidisciplinary career in his own right, contributing to the fields of meteorology, hydrology, geomorphology, and conservation more broadly. The APS holds two sets of materials that provide rich, nearly daily insights into his long career: Leopold's field notebooks and personal journals. Maintained in 71 numbered volumes—101 volumes total—the field notebooks begin in 1937 and end in 2006, just a day before his death. Given the volume of material, researchers would be well-advised to us the two indices, hand-bound by Leopold, to navigate these volumes. (Thankfully, the APS finding aid is also unusually granular.) In addition to detailed field measurements, readings, and professional travels, Leopold often uses these notebooks to record personal reflections. Arguably the jewel of the collection, however, is a set of 12 large, meticulously illustrated personal journals that collect decades (1931-2003) of personal stories, work perspectives, and travelogues. These journals are so packed with photographs, illustrations (many of them quite remarkable in their draftsmanship), and other ephemera that they might be better described as ornate scrapbooks, and some items have been relocated into separate folders. Scholars new to the collection may choose to begin research with the field notebooks and personal journals by tracing Leopold's wide-ranging twentieth-century travels. In addition to decades of intensive field work in the American west, Leopold spent extensive time in Hawaii prior to statehood (1947-48), visited India shortly after Independence (1955), and conducted a 1970 worldwide trip that carried him to Kenya, Nepal, Japan, and Israel (to which he would return in 1974 and 1983).
 

Haas opens her diary with an agenda to maintain a record of readings—and quotations pulled from those readings—as well as her own aspirations. In most entries, she responds to—and often argues with—arguments that she pulls from her diverse reading, which traverses Alcott, Balzac, Beowulf, the Bronte sisters, Dewey, Freud, Gorky, Hardy, Ibsen, Nietzsche, Thackeray, Tolstoy, and Voltaire.
 
For example, in one early entry, she takes Tolstoy to task, writing, "Some kinds of music may dull the mind, but I do not believe that all music dulls the mind. Besides, even music that dulls the mind has its place" (7/15/1928). Often, she uses those theories to rationalize her own artistic process: "Since I have studied psychology, I do not believe that artistic creation is a result of divine inspiration. My hypothesis is that these themes, which seem to be a result of divine inspiration, come in reality from my subconscious mind" (7/30/1928). Elsewhere, she advocates for limits of reason and value of emotions (e.g. 7/29/1928, 7/30/1928, and 11/25/1928).
 
While Haas largely abstains from discussing personal affairs in her correspondence, she includes several diary entries that chronicle her experiences with dating and romance (e.g. 12/2/1928 and 12/7/1930)
 
as one of her New Year's resolutions, she even adds the note: "Should not marry for at least three years" (12/1929). (Curiously, in that entry she also anticipates marrying three times.) Finally, although she mostly focuses on literature and music, Haas also includes several prescient notes on geopolitics, including the role of America in the world (e.g. 7/21/1928 and 8/2/1928) and the ebb of British colonialism (e.g. 8/7/1928).
 
Her diary concludes on 1/3/1931, with Haas enrolled at the University of Chicago, where, despite a full course roster, she plans a supplemental study regimen to guard against over-specialization: "I have planned a course of study for myself, which if carried out, will be more comprehensive than any university education could possibly be unless supplemented by wide reading."

In a diary that spans 1828-31, researchers receive an inside glimpse into Haas's early thinking about art, literature, dating and relationships, and even, to some degree, early-twentieth-century geopolitics. This diary ought to interest researchers interested in the arts, colonialism, psychology, and women's history.
 
Haas opens her diary with an agenda to maintain a record of readings—and quotations pulled from those readings—as well as her own aspirations. In most entries, she responds to—and often argues with—arguments that she pulls from her diverse reading, which traverses Alcott, Balzac, Beowulf, the Bronte sisters, Dewey, Freud, Gorky, Hardy, Ibsen, Nietzsche, Thackeray, Tolstoy, and Voltaire.
 
For example, in one early entry, she takes Tolstoy to task, writing, "Some kinds of music may dull the mind, but I do not believe that all music dulls the mind. Besides, even music that dulls the mind has its place" (7/15/1928). Often, she uses those theories to rationalize her own artistic process: "Since I have studied psychology, I do not believe that artistic creation is a result of divine inspiration. My hypothesis is that these themes, which seem to be a result of divine inspiration, come in reality from my subconscious mind" (7/30/1928). Elsewhere, she advocates for limits of reason and value of emotions (e.g. 7/29/1928, 7/30/1928, and 11/25/1928).
 
While Haas largely abstains from discussing personal affairs in her correspondence, she includes several diary entries that chronicle her experiences with dating and romance (e.g. 12/2/1928 and 12/7/1930)
 
as one of her New Year's resolutions, she even adds the note: "Should not marry for at least three years" (12/1929). (Curiously, in that entry she also anticipates marrying three times.) Finally, although she mostly focuses on literature and music, Haas also includes several prescient notes on geopolitics, including the role of America in the world (e.g. 7/21/1928 and 8/2/1928) and the ebb of British colonialism (e.g. 8/7/1928).
 
Her diary concludes on 1/3/1931, with Haas enrolled at the University of Chicago, where, despite a full course roster, she plans a supplemental study regimen to guard against over-specialization: "I have planned a course of study for myself, which if carried out, will be more comprehensive than any university education could possibly be unless supplemented by wide reading."

After the completion of the Lewis and Clark expedition, William Clark conducted a diplomatic expedition into the Missouri Territory where he would later serve as governor and superintendent of Indian affairs at St. Louis. His 1808 diary (8/25-9/22) recounts his journey to form a treaty with the territory's Osage Indians. In addition to detailed accounts of daily events, including interactions with indigenous peoples, this volume features a sketch that may have served as the basis of Clark's Fort Osage map (9/16/1808). Researchers interested in the early national period, U.S. midwestern exploration, and native diplomacy ought to find the journal particularly compelling.
 

While this volume is valuable for its accounts of William's time in France—including a French newspaper clipping (6/5)—its insights into William's strained familial relations are central to its appeal. William records at least three entries pertaining to his father, Benjamin Franklin: William writes that he "rec'd a letter from my father" (3/17), passes him on a Southampton street later that summer (7/24), and writes that he "Finish[ed] the Purchase of my Father's Estate in N. York & Jersey" (7/26). Researchers might also consider pairing this volume with the Bache diary, which records the Southampton encounters from the perspective of Benjamin Franklin's grandson, Benjamin Franklin Bache. Shortly after conducting that business, William set sail for Azores (7/28). He mentions a "Violent Hurricane" in a late entry (8/23).

The William Franklin diary documents the first nine months of 1785, during which William lived in France (1/1-9/18). Notably, this volume records William's last correspondence and an encounter with his father, Benjamin Franklin, in Southampton, England. The volume also offers glimpses into William's life in France, with notes pertaining to meetings, correspondence, and dinner plans, including at least one with Thomas Jefferson (7/4). This volume will certainly interest Franklin scholars, though it may also hold appeal to researchers investigating American loyalists abroad and late-eighteenth-century France and England.
 
While this volume is valuable for its accounts of William's time in France—including a French newspaper clipping (6/5)—its insights into William's strained familial relations are central to its appeal. William records at least three entries pertaining to his father, Benjamin Franklin: William writes that he "rec'd a letter from my father" (3/17), passes him on a Southampton street later that summer (7/24), and writes that he "Finish[ed] the Purchase of my Father's Estate in N. York & Jersey" (7/26). Researchers might also consider pairing this volume with the Bache diary, which records the Southampton encounters from the perspective of Benjamin Franklin's grandson, Benjamin Franklin Bache. Shortly after conducting that business, William set sail for Azores (7/28). He mentions a "Violent Hurricane" in a late entry (8/23).

Contained in a single volume spanning 6/8/1845-9/30/1858, C.J. Varley astronomical observations include telescopic data on comets, stars, and planets. Of particular note are the detailed ink and watercolor sketches that accompany many of the observations. Scholars researching nineteenth-century astronomy, particularly the study of Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, and the Transit of Mercury, will find this volume of particular interest.
 

The Cassin diaries are contained in six volumes. The first, spanning 1865-66, documents his travel by steamer. Cassin records crossing the equator (7/30/1865), visiting a volcano at Cape Verde (7/25/1865), and arriving in Brazil. Enterprising researchers might research his course using the longitudes and latitudes he records throughout this volume.
 
The second volume picks up more than a year later and commits significant attention to the medical profession. The first entry voices concern about the medical department at the University of Pennsylvania (12/10/1868), and subsequent pages enclose copies of letters from 1869, including his committee appointments, especially Assistant Surgeon in the Navy (4/2/1869). Sequential entries begin in earnest on 5/6/1869, when Cassin recounts his travels aboard the brig Ohieflaua from the Chicago Harbor to Lake St. Clair.
 
Cassin's third and fourth volumes are less descriptive but remarkable for the extent of his travels. In his 1870 "New York" diary, Cassin notes another journey to Brazil in June, South China Sea in August, and Hong Kong and Shanghai in September. His 1870-71 diary dovetails with the latter, recording a trip to Rio de Janeiro (6/6/1870) and undated notes pertaining to a voyage to South Africa. Once again, Cassin captures many longitudes and latitudes.
 
The "Clayton's Octovo Diary 1872" is perhaps the richest from an ethnographic perspective. Cassin provides detailed accounts of visits to Key West (2/10/1872), Havana and Matanzas (between February and April 1872), and even a brief reflection on the act of journaling. "A diary is something like a resolve to call professionally on a dentist
 
you may keep it, but the chances are much in the favor of your putting it off," Cassin observes on 4/26/7182. "Diary writing is almost the stupidest thing that I know of, unless one can make a writing task in no other way." Between May and June 1872, he travels throughout the Caribbean, furnishing descriptions of the peoples and villages he encounters. Interested researchers will find a particularly evocative entry of Key West society women in a 6/21/1872 quotation below.
 
A Pocket Diary dated 1875, finds Cassin landlocked, maintaining a more traditional journal of meetings, calls, letters, and weather conditions. The volume opens in St. Louis where he has apparently purchased a home, and it is not until September that he begins to travel again. That fall he returns to Brazil (11/6) and visits Uruguay (12/1).

Serving as a U.S. Navy physician, Charles Luke Cassin traveled extensively, recording firsthand accounts of Brazil, Canada, South Africa, the South China Sea, and the Caribbean during the postbellum period. His six-volume journal, which spans 1865-1875, offers glimpses at those far flung locations and the various peoples who inhabited them. Cassin's journals ought to appeal to a wide range of researchers, including those interested in the history of seafaring, the West Indies, ethnography, and late-eighteenth-century medical practices.
 
The Cassin diaries are contained in six volumes. The first, spanning 1865-66, documents his travel by steamer. Cassin records crossing the equator (7/30/1865), visiting a volcano at Cape Verde (7/25/1865), and arriving in Brazil. Enterprising researchers might research his course using the longitudes and latitudes he records throughout this volume.
 
The second volume picks up more than a year later and commits significant attention to the medical profession. The first entry voices concern about the medical department at the University of Pennsylvania (12/10/1868), and subsequent pages enclose copies of letters from 1869, including his committee appointments, especially Assistant Surgeon in the Navy (4/2/1869). Sequential entries begin in earnest on 5/6/1869, when Cassin recounts his travels aboard the brig Ohieflaua from the Chicago Harbor to Lake St. Clair.
 
Cassin's third and fourth volumes are less descriptive but remarkable for the extent of his travels. In his 1870 "New York" diary, Cassin notes another journey to Brazil in June, South China Sea in August, and Hong Kong and Shanghai in September. His 1870-71 diary dovetails with the latter, recording a trip to Rio de Janeiro (6/6/1870) and undated notes pertaining to a voyage to South Africa. Once again, Cassin captures many longitudes and latitudes.
 
The "Clayton's Octovo Diary 1872" is perhaps the richest from an ethnographic perspective. Cassin provides detailed accounts of visits to Key West (2/10/1872), Havana and Matanzas (between February and April 1872), and even a brief reflection on the act of journaling. "A diary is something like a resolve to call professionally on a dentist
 
you may keep it, but the chances are much in the favor of your putting it off," Cassin observes on 4/26/7182. "Diary writing is almost the stupidest thing that I know of, unless one can make a writing task in no other way." Between May and June 1872, he travels throughout the Caribbean, furnishing descriptions of the peoples and villages he encounters. Interested researchers will find a particularly evocative entry of Key West society women in a 6/21/1872 quotation below.
 
A Pocket Diary dated 1875, finds Cassin landlocked, maintaining a more traditional journal of meetings, calls, letters, and weather conditions. The volume opens in St. Louis where he has apparently purchased a home, and it is not until September that he begins to travel again. That fall he returns to Brazil (11/6) and visits Uruguay (12/1).

The first journal, entitled, "Exchange Book A 1833," includes notes on minerals, individuals, and destinations spanning 6/15/1833-4/7/1843.
 
Jackson maintained two sequential volumes between 1840 and 1841. The 1840 notebook contains entries written between 9/21-10/6, and devotes significant attention to non-geological affairs, such as towns and people, husbandry, farming methods, and yields for oats, potatoes, wheat, and various dairy products. The 1841 volume is considerably more focused on geology, with detailed accounts of granite, smoky quartz, limestone, iron, marble, and lead mines and quarries across New England. While these entries are almost single-mindedly focused on geology, there are instances when Jackson considers other affairs. For example, between 7/4-7/9, he briefly acknowledges the illness, death, and funeral of his daughter, Susan
 
on 7/20, he notes a "late speculation mania
 
" and shortly after an 8/17 entry, he describes a visit to Quebec with some commentary on the Lower Canada Rebellion. This journal features numerous hand-drawn diagrams, many of which are noteworthy for their excellent draftsmanship (8/15 and 9/15).
 
An 1849 journal continues in much the same vein, detailing geological discoveries, carefully rendered diagrams (e.g. 8/4), and barometric readings.
 
Jackson also maintained an account book that spans January 1855-October 1857. That volume features a letter to a "Humphrey Esq.," dated 1/6/186[sic] and a signed entry concerning a dispute regarding certified copies of a document, dated 8/21 (presumably 1857). Interested researchers may choose to review other notebooks in the Geology Journals box, such as a catalog of rocks and minerals from Lake Superior and a scrapbook maintained by Mrs. C.J. Jackson, dated 1881.

Charles Thomas Jackson maintained at least five notebooks that could be classified as diaries, which detail geological expeditions undertaken between 1833-1849. These diaries may interest researchers considering Jackson's geological surveys, New England farming, husbandry, and geology, and the Lower Canada Rebellion.
 
The first journal, entitled, "Exchange Book A 1833," includes notes on minerals, individuals, and destinations spanning 6/15/1833-4/7/1843.
 
Jackson maintained two sequential volumes between 1840 and 1841. The 1840 notebook contains entries written between 9/21-10/6, and devotes significant attention to non-geological affairs, such as towns and people, husbandry, farming methods, and yields for oats, potatoes, wheat, and various dairy products. The 1841 volume is considerably more focused on geology, with detailed accounts of granite, smoky quartz, limestone, iron, marble, and lead mines and quarries across New England. While these entries are almost single-mindedly focused on geology, there are instances when Jackson considers other affairs. For example, between 7/4-7/9, he briefly acknowledges the illness, death, and funeral of his daughter, Susan
 
on 7/20, he notes a "late speculation mania
 
" and shortly after an 8/17 entry, he describes a visit to Quebec with some commentary on the Lower Canada Rebellion. This journal features numerous hand-drawn diagrams, many of which are noteworthy for their excellent draftsmanship (8/15 and 9/15).
 
An 1849 journal continues in much the same vein, detailing geological discoveries, carefully rendered diagrams (e.g. 8/4), and barometric readings.
 
Jackson also maintained an account book that spans January 1855-October 1857. That volume features a letter to a "Humphrey Esq.," dated 1/6/186[sic] and a signed entry concerning a dispute regarding certified copies of a document, dated 8/21 (presumably 1857). Interested researchers may choose to review other notebooks in the Geology Journals box, such as a catalog of rocks and minerals from Lake Superior and a scrapbook maintained by Mrs. C.J. Jackson, dated 1881.