A Polish historian and archaeologist, Jan Potocki maintained this journal during a journey to Russia (1797-1798) in search of the origins of the ancient Scythians. The usefulness of this diary will be limited to researchers who can read or translate French. However, as the Early American History Note suggests, this volume may, interest scholars researching global history, international relations, imperialism, or the U.S. in the world.
 

"Journal of a Vacation Spent in New England" actually contains accounts of several trips taken over a five-year span. The first trip is to Massachusetts (hence the journal's name) and Quebec in the summer of 1895. The second trip, the following summer, culminates in Nova Scotia after stops in Boston and Portland. During a visit to Longfellow's house, the diarist furnishes an illustration of the tombstone (8/25/1896) and, later, a sketch of the "Jelly-Fish Medusa." The diarist also includes pressed, dried flowers, which she associates with various destinations on a trip to Europe in the summer of 1900. Several of those labels are excerpted in Selected Quotations.

In an anonymous journal maintained between 1895-1900, a female diarist documents several family trips with lengthy accounts of places, sights, other travelers, item prices, and modes of travel--including sailboat. Judging from the destinations (e.g. Hyannis Port and Marie Antoinette's Garden) the diarist's family is upper-class. The diarist also furnishes several illustrations and numerous dried flowers from her travels in Europe. This volume may interest researchers seeking accounts of New England, Quebec, and Europe at the turn of the twentieth century, European fauna, and perspective of upper-class women in the Gilded Age.
 
"Journal of a Vacation Spent in New England" actually contains accounts of several trips taken over a five-year span. The first trip is to Massachusetts (hence the journal's name) and Quebec in the summer of 1895. The second trip, the following summer, culminates in Nova Scotia after stops in Boston and Portland. During a visit to Longfellow's house, the diarist furnishes an illustration of the tombstone (8/25/1896) and, later, a sketch of the "Jelly-Fish Medusa." The diarist also includes pressed, dried flowers, which she associates with various destinations on a trip to Europe in the summer of 1900. Several of those labels are excerpted in Selected Quotations.

Although the Loammi Baldwin Diary traverses just three months (9/9-11/29/1823), this volume provides a valuable record for researchers interested in antebellum travel, early-nineteenth century Europe, and urban architecture and mechanics, particularly the construction of canals and bridges. In fact, the highlight of this diary is less Baldwin's narratives of prominent European cities, including Amsterdam, Brussels, and Paris, than his remarkable illustrations of their architecture and mechanical structures. Reference his illustration of the floating bridge on Helder Canal in Amsterdam for a model of Baldwin's keen draftsmanship (11/1/1823).
 

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.
 

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.
 

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.

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

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

David Rittenhouse maintained meteorological observations in two volumes that span the first twenty years of the early national period (5/6/1784-9/30/1805). Alongside weather conditions, Rittenhouse regularly documents temperatures, the conditions of roads, expenses, and accounts. These volumes may interest researchers studying meteorological conditions as well as other regional phenomena such as eclipses and the Yellow Fever epidemic.

Meteorological observations, 1784-1805
 
David Rittenhouse maintained meteorological observations in two volumes that span the first twenty years of the early national period (5/6/1784-9/30/1805). Alongside weather conditions, Rittenhouse regularly documents temperatures, the conditions of roads, expenses, and accounts. These volumes may interest researchers studying meteorological conditions as well as other regional phenomena such as eclipses and the Yellow Fever epidemic.

Edmund Beecher Wilson maintained a private journal than traverses much his tenure at Columbia University (12/5/1903-5/24/1928). Wilson includes frank assessments of undergraduate and graduate students, many of whom would become leaders in the fields of biology, genetics, and zoology. For example, he writes of Rebecca Lancefield—who would become a leading microbiologist—"good on the whole, faulty in spots" (5/26/1917). Other prominent graduate students include A. Franklin Shull, Jack Schultz, Hermann Muller, Calvin Bridges, Alfred Sturtevant, and Curt Stern (for whom APS possesses two diaries). Researchers interested in the history of science, education, and the research university will find this volume particularly useful.
 

Theoretical physicist Edward Uhler Condon documents three decades of his professional career through 35 volumes of appointment books and planners (1939-1971). Although his entries are necessarily sparse, these notebooks ought to interest scholars researching his professional activities in government, industry, and the academy (most especially his tenure at Princeton University). Condon recounts a range of professional engagements, including his teaching schedule, meetings, conferences, proposals, and book manuscript development. Notably, early entries register some religious practices (Jewish), such as meetings with rabbis (e.g. 4/16/1939, 10/19/1939), and mounting concerns related to World War II (beginning 3/16/1939). Later journals document his rising professional star, including a memo inviting him to participate in a meeting at Library of Congress (11/7/1949) and National Science Foundation (11/9/1957). Researchers interested in his career will find detailed records of his professional networks, including the names, contact details, and occasionally business cards of associates.