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1.Title:  Meriwether Lewis Journal (1803, 1810)
 Dates:  1803 - 1810 
 Extent:  1 volume  
 Locations:  Camp Dubois | Pittsburgh 
 Abstract:  Read in conjunction with the Lewis and Clark journals (Mss.917.3.L58) and William Clark Diary (Mss.917.3.L58c), the Meriwether Lewis journal will serve scholars researching the Lewis and Clark Expedition and western exploration in the early national period. Lewis' journal offers an early account of the river trip from Pittsburgh to the winter camp of the expedition, Camp Dubois, outside what is today Wood River, Illinois (June and December 1803). Lewis furnishes various meteorological observations as well as entries from William Clark. About a quarter of the journal (31 of 126 leaves) contains questions from Nicholas Biddle, with William Clark's replies, dated 1810. Biddle later requested that Clark write a narrative of the expedition, which was published as "History of the Expedition of Captains Lewis and Clark" (1814). This journal has also been printed in M. M. Quaife, ed., "The Journals of Captain Meriwether Lewis and Sargeant John Ordway, Kept on the Expedition of Western Exploration, 1803-1806," State Historical Society of Wisconsin Collections 22 (1916). 
    
 
    
Read in conjunction with the Lewis and Clark journals (Mss.917.3.L58) and William Clark Diary (Mss.917.3.L58c), the Meriwether Lewis journal will serve scholars researching the Lewis and Clark Expedition and western exploration in the early national period. Lewis' journal offers an early account of the river trip from Pittsburgh to the winter camp of the expedition, Camp Dubois, outside what is today Wood River, Illinois (June and December 1803). Lewis furnishes various meteorological observations as well as entries from William Clark. About a quarter of the journal (31 of 126 leaves) contains questions from Nicholas Biddle, with William Clark's replies, dated 1810. Biddle later requested that Clark write a narrative of the expedition, which was published as "History of the Expedition of Captains Lewis and Clark" (1814). This journal has also been printed in M. M. Quaife, ed., "The Journals of Captain Meriwether Lewis and Sargeant John Ordway, Kept on the Expedition of Western Exploration, 1803-1806," State Historical Society of Wisconsin Collections 22 (1916).
 
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 Subjects:  Diaries. | Expedition | Louisiana Purchase. | Lewis and Clark Expedition (1804-1806) | Meteorology. 
 Collection:  Meriwether Lewis journal, August 30, 1803 - December 12, 1803; 1810  (Mss.917.3.L58)  
  Go to the collection
 
2.Title:  George Gaylord Simpson Travel Journals (1924-1984)
 Dates:  1924 - 1984 
 Extent:  36 volumes  
 Locations:  Antarctica | Athens | Baffin Bay | Bangkok | Beijing | Buenos Aires | Cairo | Calcutta | Cape Town | Caracas | Corfu | Curacao | Dakar | Darjeeling | Dubrovnik | Easter Island | Fiji | Frankfurt | Grand Junction | Hong Kong | Honolulu | Hydra | Karachi | Kyoto | London | Los Angeles | Madrid | Mount Everest | Moscow | Nairobi | New York | Piraeus | Rio de Janeiro | Seychelles | Shanghai | Singapore | Sydney | Tokyo | Zanzibar 
 Abstract:  The travel journals of Harvard professor, curator, and evolutionary biologist George Gaylord Simpson ought to be near the top research lists of scholars investigating twentieth-century history, travel, conservation, anthropology, and paleontology. Available in seven boxes of handwritten journals, typed pages, carbon copies, and countless ephemera, Simpson's travel writings provide textured insights into his life, research, intellectual, philosophical, and political positions. Over the course of six decades of journaling (1924-1984), Simpson records at least 36 distinct expeditions, traveling to every continent and documenting discoveries in extraordinary detail and literary style. (Consider the locations identified with this note representative rather than comprehensive of his diverse travels.) Noteworthy journals include: Depression-era trips to Patagonia (1931, 1934), an extended tour of Venezuela in the late-1930s (1938-39), trips to Brazil and the Amazon basin (1954-56, 1983-84), a tour to Spain under Franco (1960), expeditions in North Africa and the Middle East just before the Six Day War (1967), visits to Australia (1951, 1968), Fiji (1968), Indonesia (1975), Papua New Guinea (1976), trips to the Galapagos (1970, 1974), expeditions to the Arctic (1974) and Antarctica (1971-73), a trip to Soviet Union during the Cold War (1977), and a tour of China after its economic reforms (1980).; In his travels, Simpson's mastery of detail is matched only by his curiosity and literary flourish. For example, during his 1938-39 Venezuela tour, he discusses everything from population density (4/25/1939) and the work of Catholic missionaries with indigenous populations (1/15/1939) to the sweet coffee in Barquisimeto (9/21/1938) and his method for killing an opossum without damaging its skin (10/6/1938). At times, his reflections blur the boundaries of prose and poetry. In a collection of reminders from his time in Los Robles, he lists: "The noise they make to shoo animals--This can't be written even approximately, something like the clearing of a throat long and viciously. The sound of rain falling on canvas, on bushes, everywhere, the roar of flooding gullies, and slip and thud of landslides. The sound of pigs slashing and shearing by night outside the kitchen. The smell of fresh, heavily roasted coffee being ground…Hillsides brilliant yellow and pale green with mecutera" (12/19/1938). Researchers may anticipate discovering such redolent entries scattered throughout Simpson's journals, as suggested by Selected Quotations. Although items are not individually cataloged, scholars may choose to begin to mine this rich collection using Anne Roe Simpson's "Note on travel diaries." 
    
 
    
The travel journals of Harvard professor, curator, and evolutionary biologist George Gaylord Simpson ought to be near the top research lists of scholars investigating twentieth-century history, travel, conservation, anthropology, and paleontology. Available in seven boxes of handwritten journals, typed pages, carbon copies, and countless ephemera, Simpson's travel writings provide textured insights into his life, research, intellectual, philosophical, and political positions. Over the course of six decades of journaling (1924-1984), Simpson records at least 36 distinct expeditions, traveling to every continent and documenting discoveries in extraordinary detail and literary style. (Consider the locations identified with this note representative rather than comprehensive of his diverse travels.) Noteworthy journals include: Depression-era trips to Patagonia (1931, 1934), an extended tour of Venezuela in the late-1930s (1938-39), trips to Brazil and the Amazon basin (1954-56, 1983-84), a tour to Spain under Franco (1960), expeditions in North Africa and the Middle East just before the Six Day War (1967), visits to Australia (1951, 1968), Fiji (1968), Indonesia (1975), Papua New Guinea (1976), trips to the Galapagos (1970, 1974), expeditions to the Arctic (1974) and Antarctica (1971-73), a trip to Soviet Union during the Cold War (1977), and a tour of China after its economic reforms (1980).; In his travels, Simpson's mastery of detail is matched only by his curiosity and literary flourish. For example, during his 1938-39 Venezuela tour, he discusses everything from population density (4/25/1939) and the work of Catholic missionaries with indigenous populations (1/15/1939) to the sweet coffee in Barquisimeto (9/21/1938) and his method for killing an opossum without damaging its skin (10/6/1938). At times, his reflections blur the boundaries of prose and poetry. In a collection of reminders from his time in Los Robles, he lists: "The noise they make to shoo animals--This can't be written even approximately, something like the clearing of a throat long and viciously. The sound of rain falling on canvas, on bushes, everywhere, the roar of flooding gullies, and slip and thud of landslides. The sound of pigs slashing and shearing by night outside the kitchen. The smell of fresh, heavily roasted coffee being ground…Hillsides brilliant yellow and pale green with mecutera" (12/19/1938). Researchers may anticipate discovering such redolent entries scattered throughout Simpson's journals, as suggested by Selected Quotations. Although items are not individually cataloged, scholars may choose to begin to mine this rich collection using Anne Roe Simpson's "Note on travel diaries."
 
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  Selected Quotations
  • Skinning an opossum in Venezuela: "The night's catch consisted of one young opossum and one field mouse, quite like, but I think a different species from the others. The opossum was alive and I showed him how they could be killed in order not to hurt the skin—a nasty job, particularly with these beasts which are tenacious of life—I must have been 20 minutes at it, but that's partly lack of skill and strength , I suppose, The animal makes no protest, which is a help—I can do with only a few of these—they have a strong odor, quite like garlic and almost overpowering to the skinner!" (10/6/1938)

  • 'Reminders' from Venezuela: "Things that will remind me of Los Robles…Melancholy shouts of long-drawn 'A---a-a-ah-ooooo!' from one hillside to the next. The noise they make to shoo animals--This can't be written even approximately, something like the clearing of a throat long and viciously. The sound of rain falling on canvas, on bushes, everywhere, the roar of flooding gullies, and slip and thud of landslides. The sound of pigs slashing and shearing by night outside the kitchen. The smell of fresh, heavily roasted coffee being ground…Hillsides brilliant yellow and pale green with mecutera…The smell of thick, green mold." (12/19/1938)

  • Catholic missionaries in Venezuela: "[T]he Venezuelan Catholics did to some extent take over the work and are apparently, on a very small scale, doing some good in civilizing the Indians. It is (in my opinion) unfortunate that this work of civilization should be done by religious missionaries and it is abundantly clear in this account and also in innumerable others it suffers greatly by being inseparably linked with Evangelical efforts and, still more, with bitter factional strife in the area between different sects of missionaries. Sometimes the civilizing efforts merely result in maladjustment, but this is not necessarily so and, taking this friar at his word is not so here. One cannot, then, but approve of teaching the savages elements of hygiene, writing, farming, etc." (1/15/1939)

  • "Incredible swarms of brown people. (Mostly Chinese, but Chinese are brown, not yellow, really.) Especially children everywhere, practically piled up in heaps along the narrow streets. Such a focus (and we know that it only exemplifies the abundance and fecundity of the Asians) is a sort of breeding point quite capable of rapidly populating the whole world—and perhaps likely to do so? The One World, when it comes, must surely be a predominantly Asiatic world in genetic source, at least. How can we, and should we, forever dam back this flood of people? Their increase is checked by starvation, our sentimental amelioration of which can only produce more people to starve later on, and by killing them off, which we are doing but not effectively enough to be a long-range solution. The necessary ultimate solution, if one is ever achieved, is birth, or rather , population control, but this only accentuates the trend because obviously it has been and will be applied sooner and to greater extent by Europeans and Americans than by Asians. I see nothing tragic in a predominantly Asian genetic future for Homo sapiens. I only hope we may be may be sensible enough to incorporate the best of our genes and of our institutions and knowledge into this future, and not force the Asians to exterminate us and wipe out our culture" (6/3/1951)

  • Dictatorship in Spain: "As for dictatorship, of course I don't like the idea any more than Catalonians or any other Spaniards do, but a majority of Spaniards do like it, and in any case it does not impinge on the visitor at all. There are no secret police, and the regular police are just like cops anywhere but rather more polite than in America. The newspapers do not attack the government, but the citizens do very freely and without looking over their shoulders. Most cities have a Francisco Franco or Caudillo avenue, but there is no obvious hero worship and there are few slogans on display. There is a vast amount of road, dam, ditch, and other public construction under way, so the government is obviously turning a decent part of the taxes into useful channels. In fact as even opponents of this regime are likely to stay, this is one of the best governments Spain has ever had in its sorry history, and that is something. The Spaniards have no talent for democracy. They cannot and will not compromise unless the compromise is forced or dictated. It would be nice if a workable democracy were possible, but that is not realistic for now, at least. If a democracy ever does become possible, it is more likely to develop from this rather easy-going personalist dictatorship than from a dictatorship of the proletariat, and there has been no real chance of avoiding one or the other" (8/16/1960)

  • Dress in Nairobi: "The great majority of the Africans one sees are dressed in mad conglomerations of rags, patched and unpatched. A very few wear European street clothes of course although many men do wear shorts. Hotel servants here also in white robes, some with wide belts some with gilets" (6/11/1961)

  • Soviet military activity: "Defense note: At the entrance to the Suez Canal and Port Said are two Soviet warships to defend the canal from attack. From Russian attack?" (3/29/1967)

  • On Blue Whales near Antarctica: "These seas used to swarm with whales, but they have mostly been killed off. No species extinct yet, but the noblest whales of all, the blues, are so near extinction that they probably cannot be saved" (1/22/1971)

  • Rhodesia and South Africa. "1) Few countries compare with these for beauty and scenic, faunal, and floral interest. 2) There are some nice, decent people of any race or color. 3) The legal systems and social mores of these white-controlled countries are so cruel, hypocritical, and disgusting that it is an absurd mockery to call them civilized." (4/2/1972)

  • The Himalayas: "[T]he clouds that were below us at sunrise have risen and broken, still sweep in bits across the incredible panorama, but do not long obscure that parade of peaks from Everest and beyond across to Kangchen junga and beyond. Just below us varicolored and movement Darjeeling basks in fitful and rather cold but delightful sunshine. This unnecessary and so chancy trip is a success, whatever else may not occur" (2/20/1977)

  • Buddhist shrine in China: "This is an awe-inspiring and tremendous place, & we are told that one reason for the multitude of Japanese visitors to China just now is because they hold this temple as particularly holy. But one of my probably many prejudices is that I think the Japanese, as a people, are not much impressed by what I consider holy. For that matter, Americans aren't either. (But I feel what for me is holiness is a temple like this, or a medieval cathedral in France, or an early Mosque in Egypt, without in any of these cases agreeing with rather nasty theology involved)" (9/2/1980)
 
 Subjects:  Africa. | Antarctica. | Asia. | Australia. | Diaries. | Ephemera. | Europe. | Evolutionary developmental biology. | Expedition | Scientific expeditions. | South America. | Travel. | United States--Civilization--1918-1945. | United States--Civilization--1945- 
 Collection:  George Gaylord Simpson Papers  (Mss.Ms.Coll.31)  
  Go to the collection
 
3.Title:  James Burd Diaries (1747, 1760, 1763)
 Dates:  1757 - 1763 
 Extent:  3 volumes  
 Locations:  Carlisle | Fort Augusta | Fort William Henry | Lancaster 
 Abstract:  The Burd-Shippen Papers contain numerous records belonging to James Burd, who served as a commanding officer at Fort Augusta during the Seven Years' War. This expansive collection features at least three diaries. One, from 1760 (2/8-11/7), recounts the construction of Fort Burd and expeditions throughout western Pennsylvania. This diary includes references to William Shippen (11/4/1760) and regular accounts of Native-white interactions, both peaceful and violent. Another journal from the summer of 1763 (6/5-10/24) documents his time at Fort Augusta. It recounts the opening of Pontiac's Rebellion and the initial reports of the Indian raid on the Connecticut settlers in the Wyoming Valley. Finally, there's a third fragment of a diary from August 1757 (8/2-8/10). In six leaves, Burd describes the Siege of Fort William Henry, including an account of the events of the capitulation and surrender of that British fort to the French and their Indian allies. These volumes ought to interest scholars researching the Seven Years' War, Pontiac's Rebellion, and colonial settlement practices more broadly. 
    
 
    
The Burd-Shippen Papers contain numerous records belonging to James Burd, who served as a commanding officer at Fort Augusta during the Seven Years' War. This expansive collection features at least three diaries. One, from 1760 (2/8-11/7), recounts the construction of Fort Burd and expeditions throughout western Pennsylvania. This diary includes references to William Shippen (11/4/1760) and regular accounts of Native-white interactions, both peaceful and violent. Another journal from the summer of 1763 (6/5-10/24) documents his time at Fort Augusta. It recounts the opening of Pontiac's Rebellion and the initial reports of the Indian raid on the Connecticut settlers in the Wyoming Valley. Finally, there's a third fragment of a diary from August 1757 (8/2-8/10). In six leaves, Burd describes the Siege of Fort William Henry, including an account of the events of the capitulation and surrender of that British fort to the French and their Indian allies. These volumes ought to interest scholars researching the Seven Years' War, Pontiac's Rebellion, and colonial settlement practices more broadly.
 
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 Subjects:  Colonial America | Diaries. | Expedition | Iroquois Indians. | Native America | Seven Years' War, 1756-1763. 
 Collection:  Burd-Shippen Papers  (Mss.B.B892)  
  Go to the collection
 
4.Title:  John Ordway Journal (1804-1806)
 Dates:  1804 - 1806 
 Extent:  3 volumes  
 Locations:  Saint Louis 
 Abstract:  These three volumes contain the journal kept by John Ordway from May 1804 to September 1806, while serving as a sergeant of the Lewis and Clark Expedition. Ordway's journals note wildlife, daily happenings on the expedition, and interactions with Native peoples. These volumes can serve as a good complement to the original Lewis and Clark ones. The journals have been edited and printed elsewhere, including a recent edition published by the American Philosophical Society. 
    
 
    
These three volumes contain the journal kept by John Ordway from May 1804 to September 1806, while serving as a sergeant of the Lewis and Clark Expedition. Ordway's journals note wildlife, daily happenings on the expedition, and interactions with Native peoples. These volumes can serve as a good complement to the original Lewis and Clark ones. The journals have been edited and printed elsewhere, including a recent edition published by the American Philosophical Society.
 
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 Subjects:  Diaries. | Expedition | Native America | Natural history. | United States--Civilization--1783-1865. 
 Collection:  John Ordway journal, 1804-1806  (Mss.917.3.Or2)  
  Go to the collection
 
5.Title:  Meriwether Lewis and William Clark Journals (1804-1806)
 Dates:  1804 - 1806 
 Extent:  30 volumes  
 Locations:  Arrow Rock | Browning | Cahokia | Cape Disappointment State Park | Cascade | Chinook | Cut Bank | Dillon | Fort Calhoun | Fort Osage | Lemhi Pass | Lewis and Clark National Historical Park | Lolo | Nez Perce National Historical Park | Pompey's Pillar | Portage | Rocheport | Rulo | Saint Albans | Saint Louis | Sioux City | Spalding | Spirit Mound Township | Stanton | Weippe Prairie | Williston 
 Abstract:  The Lewis and Clark Journals are among the most treasured and well-known collections at the American Philosophical Society. These 30 manuscript journals provide a detail record of the travels of Lewis and Clark to the source of the Missouri River and across the continent to the Pacific Ocean, including interlineations by Nicholas Biddle, who later published the narrative "History of the Expedition of Captains Lewis and Clark" (1814). Interested researchers may refer to the Finding Aid for a detailed account of the collection. Scholars researching the Lewis and Clark Expedition and western exploration in the early national period may choose to complement these volumes by paging the Meriwether Lewis Journal (Mss.917.3.L58), which provides an early account of the river trip from Pittsburgh to the winter camp of the expedition (1803), and the William Clark Diary (Mss.917.3.L58c), which details Clark's diplomatic expedition into the Missouri Territory after the expedition (1808). 
    
 
    
The Lewis and Clark Journals are among the most treasured and well-known collections at the American Philosophical Society. These 30 manuscript journals provide a detail record of the travels of Lewis and Clark to the source of the Missouri River and across the continent to the Pacific Ocean, including interlineations by Nicholas Biddle, who later published the narrative "History of the Expedition of Captains Lewis and Clark" (1814). Interested researchers may refer to the Finding Aid for a detailed account of the collection. Scholars researching the Lewis and Clark Expedition and western exploration in the early national period may choose to complement these volumes by paging the Meriwether Lewis Journal (Mss.917.3.L58), which provides an early account of the river trip from Pittsburgh to the winter camp of the expedition (1803), and the William Clark Diary (Mss.917.3.L58c), which details Clark's diplomatic expedition into the Missouri Territory after the expedition (1808).
 
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 Subjects:  Chinook Indians. | Diaries. | Diplomacy. | Expedition | Exploration & encounters | Indians of North America--Missouri. | Indians of North America--Montana. | Indians of North America--North Dakota | Indians of North America--Oregon | Louisiana Purchase. | Lewis and Clark Expedition (1804-1806) | Mandan Indians | Missouri Indians. | Native America | Natural history. | Northwest Coast of North America. | Oto Indians. | Salish Indians. | Shoshoni Indians. | Sihasapa Indians. | Travel. | United States--Civilization--1783-1865. 
 Collection:  Lewis and Clark Journals  (Mss.917.3.L58)  
  Go to the collection
 
6.Title:  Pim Nevins Journal (1802-1803)
 Dates:  1802 - 1803 
 Extent:  1 volume  
 Locations:  Alexandria | Baltimore | Bethlehem | Easton | Lancaster | New Brunswick | New York | Philadelphia | Trenton | Washington D.C. | Wilmington 
 Abstract:  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 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.
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 Subjects:  American religious cultures | Diaries. | Expedition | Natural history. | Society of Friends. | Travel. | United States--Civilization--1783-1865. 
 Collection:  Pim Nevins Journal  (Mss.917.3.N41)  
  Go to the collection
 
7.Title:  William Clark Diary (1808)
 Dates:  1808 - 1808 
 Extent:  1 volume  
 Locations:  Fort Osage 
 Abstract:  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. 
    
 
    
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.
 
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 Subjects:  Diaries. | Diplomacy. | Expedition | Indian traders. | Indians of North America--Treaties. | Native America | Osage Indians. | Travel. | United States--Civilization--1783-1865. 
 Collection:  William Clark diary, August 25, 1808 - September 22, 1808  (Mss.917.3.L58c)  
  Go to the collection
 
8.Title:  Charles Thomas Jackson Notebooks (1833-1857)
 Dates:  1833 - 1857 
 Extent:  5 volumes  
 Locations:  Boston | Concord | Portsmouth | Quebec City 
 Abstract:  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.
 
    
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.
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  Selected Quotations
  • Death of Daughter: "This morning she is evidently sinking. 5 PM she died—We returned to Boston & the corpse of the child was brought down in the night by the [nurse]" (7/7/1841)

  • Quebec and Lower Canadian Rebellion: "We have now no hairbreadth escapes to relate and all goes glibly as the railroad car on the present route. We held long talks with the Canadian Caliche drivers who showed us all the scenes of the Insurrection of Montreal & Vicinity. The Canadians have been sadly abused by the English & abominably neglected by the Americans. Had they revolted they would have been styled Heroes & would have been crowded with laurels but because they failed ignominy & the scaffolds are regarded as their just dues!!! This is human justice and human glory! It was so in Paris in June 1832. That was an infamous rebellion because it failed although it had a better cause than the Revolution of the 3 days of July 1830" (8/17/1841)

  • Speculation mania: "another pyrite mine was discovered & the dreams of gold silver & copper were dissipated in a sulfurous smoke at once by my verdict on the nature of the minerals obtained by villains at the mine" (9/13/1841)
 
 Subjects:  Accounts. | Agriculture. | Canada--History--1763-1867. | Diaries. | Expedition | Geology. | New England. | Rebellions, revolts, and uprisings | Science. | Travel. 
 Collection:  Papers of Charles Thomas Jackson  (Mss.Ms.Coll.190)  
  
9.Title:  Elisha Kent Kane Papers & Kane Ship Logs (1836-1855)
 Dates:  1836 - 1855 
 Extent:  50 volumes  
 Locations:  Baltimore | Bombay | Boston | Hong Kong | New York | Philadelphia | Rio de Janeiro | San Francisco | Washington D.C. | Amsterdam | Barbados | Bermuda | Callao | Camden | Charleston | Chincha Islands | Cienfuegos | Colombo | Demerara | Havana | Havre de Grace | Liverpool | Luxor | Macau | Manila | Melbourne | Mobile | New Orleans | Norfolk | Norwich | Pensacola | Richmond | Savannah | Tabasco | Tahiti | Tarrytown | Valparaiso | Tampico | Veracruz | Wilmington 
 Abstract:  The Elisha Kent Kane Papers and Logbooks include at least 50 heterogeneous notebooks, journals, and logs that may be loosely termed diaries and clustered into four main categories: Kane's arctic expeditions (containing six notebooks); his world travel (eight notebooks); his education, training, and medical practice (24 notebooks); and the various ship logs contained in the Kane Ship Log collection (12 notebooks). Although some of these records are difficult to interpret in isolation, when read together in these suggestive clusters, they will richly reward scholars interested in trans-Atlantic and trans-Pacific travel, antebellum medicine, colonialism, and ethnography. Reference F. A. Parker's "Log of the U.S. Frigate Brandywine" (Kane Logbooks, No.7) and Samuel L. Breeze's "Journal of the U.S. Sloop of War Albany" (Kane Logbooks, No.8) for detailed illustrations of antebellum Rio de Janeiro, Macao, Hong Kong, Honolulu, Valparaiso, Veracruz, and the Yucatan. 
    
 
    
The Elisha Kent Kane Papers and Logbooks include at least 50 heterogeneous notebooks, journals, and logs that may be loosely termed diaries and clustered into four main categories: Kane's arctic expeditions (containing six notebooks); his world travel (eight notebooks); his education, training, and medical practice (24 notebooks); and the various ship logs contained in the Kane Ship Log collection (12 notebooks). Although some of these records are difficult to interpret in isolation, when read together in these suggestive clusters, they will richly reward scholars interested in trans-Atlantic and trans-Pacific travel, antebellum medicine, colonialism, and ethnography. Reference F. A. Parker's "Log of the U.S. Frigate Brandywine" (Kane Logbooks, No.7) and Samuel L. Breeze's "Journal of the U.S. Sloop of War Albany" (Kane Logbooks, No.8) for detailed illustrations of antebellum Rio de Janeiro, Macao, Hong Kong, Honolulu, Valparaiso, Veracruz, and the Yucatan.
 
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 Subjects:  Africa. | Arctic Missions | Australia. | Central America. | Colonialisms | Diaries. | Egyptology. | Ethnography and education | Expedition | Europe. | Medicine. | Middle East. | South America. | Travel. 
 Collection:  Elisha Kent Kane Papers  (Mss.B.K132)  
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10.Title:  George Hunter Journals (1796-1809)
 Dates:  1796 - 1809 
 Extent:  4 volumes  
 Locations:  Baltimore | Berlin | Blue Lick | Carlisle | Frankford | Lexington | Louisville | Millersburg | Natchez | New Orleans | Philadelphia | Pittsburgh | Port Vincent | Richmond | Sadler | Saint Catharine's | Saint Louis | Shippensburg | Washington D.C. | Wheeling 
 Abstract:  George Hunter maintained four journals during expeditions into Kentucky, Illinois, Mississippi, and Louisiana between 1796-1809. Hunter records his daily affairs, observations of territories, visits to trading centers, and commentary on international rivalries and relations with various indigenous peoples, including the Delaware, Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, and Osage. With rich, narrative accounts of western travel in the early national period—including exploration of Louisiana shortly after the Louisiana Purchase—the Hunter diaries ought to interest scholars researching the American west, Native America, and U.S. empire. 
    
Interested researchers would do well to consult the detailed description of Hunter's four volumes available in the Early American History Note. For the purposes of diary researchers, the first volume (1796) warrants attention for its descriptions of indigenous peoples and early settlements. For example, Hunter offers an extended account of St. Louis (9/4/1796). He also describes an Indian woman whose nose was cut off by her husband for infidelity, a passage excerpted in Selected Quotations (9/9/1796). The 1802 journal documents Hunter's trip across Pennsylvania (Berlin, Carlisle, and Shippensburg), visit to a cave in Kentucky, and discussion of salt production at Blue Lick. Finally, the last two journals (1804, 1809) include various travels in the South, including a description of expedition to the Hot Springs of Arkansas (1804-1805) as well as longitudes and latitudes that researchers might use to trace Hunter's journey. Notably, Hunter discovers Mammoth bones, which he compares to those of Charles Wilson Peale, writing, "I cannot for bear mentioning a great natural curiosity I have just seen here [sic] about 2 ½ Tons of Bones of one or two Mammoths twice as large as Peals" (5/27/1804).
 
    
George Hunter maintained four journals during expeditions into Kentucky, Illinois, Mississippi, and Louisiana between 1796-1809. Hunter records his daily affairs, observations of territories, visits to trading centers, and commentary on international rivalries and relations with various indigenous peoples, including the Delaware, Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, and Osage. With rich, narrative accounts of western travel in the early national period—including exploration of Louisiana shortly after the Louisiana Purchase—the Hunter diaries ought to interest scholars researching the American west, Native America, and U.S. empire.
 
Interested researchers would do well to consult the detailed description of Hunter's four volumes available in the Early American History Note. For the purposes of diary researchers, the first volume (1796) warrants attention for its descriptions of indigenous peoples and early settlements. For example, Hunter offers an extended account of St. Louis (9/4/1796). He also describes an Indian woman whose nose was cut off by her husband for infidelity, a passage excerpted in Selected Quotations (9/9/1796). The 1802 journal documents Hunter's trip across Pennsylvania (Berlin, Carlisle, and Shippensburg), visit to a cave in Kentucky, and discussion of salt production at Blue Lick. Finally, the last two journals (1804, 1809) include various travels in the South, including a description of expedition to the Hot Springs of Arkansas (1804-1805) as well as longitudes and latitudes that researchers might use to trace Hunter's journey. Notably, Hunter discovers Mammoth bones, which he compares to those of Charles Wilson Peale, writing, "I cannot for bear mentioning a great natural curiosity I have just seen here [sic] about 2 ½ Tons of Bones of one or two Mammoths twice as large as Peals" (5/27/1804).
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  Selected Quotations
  • "After dinner crossed the Mississippi, in a Canoe, swimming our horses after it, & came to the Town of St. Louis, on the Spanish side, here we also paid our respects to the Commandant & were politely received…This Town is built on the banks of the Mississippi upon high ground with a gradual descent to the water. Is very healthy to appearance. The children seem ruddy & water is good, & everything puts on a better appearance than on our side" (9/4/1796)

  • "There is a considerable resort of Indians, they are constantly thro & about this hour at all times, like as many pet Lambs, at present there is a Man, his Squa & child sitting by the kitchen fire. The squa has a piece of her nose cut off by this very husband now sitting peaceably by her sit, in a fit of Jealousy, she wears a piece of [Ten?] bent over the part to make out the nose. It seems with them that for the first offence this way with another man, the Squa is punished with a sound drubbing, for the next, he cuts off the end of her nose, & for the third he either kills her or turns her away" (9/9/1796)

  • "I cannot for bear mentioning a great natural curiosity I have just seen here [sic] about 2 ½ Tons of Bones of one or two Mammoths twice as large as Peals" (5/27/1804)
 
 Subjects:  American Western Life | Cherokee Indians. | Chickasaw Indians. | Choctaw Indians. | Delaware Indians. | Diaries. | Expedition | Geology. | Jefferson, Thomas, 1743-1826. | Meteorology. | Native America | Natural history. | Osage Indians. | Science. | Travel. | United States--Civilization--1783-1865. | Weather. 
 Collection:  George Hunter Journals  (Mss.B.H912)  
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11.Title:  Sylvanus Griswold Morley Diaries (1905-1947)
 Dates:  1905 - 1947 
 Extent:  39 volumes  
 Locations:  Baltimore | Boston | Havana | Mexico City | New York | Philadelphia | Washington D.C. | Acajutla | Aguas Calientes | Albany | Albuquerque | Altar de Sacrificios | Amapala | Antonito | Apizaco | Baldwinville | Benque Viejo del Carmen | Bluefields | Cahabon | Cambridge | Camotan | Campeche | Cayo | Chable | El Ceibal | Chester | Chenku | Chichen | Chorro | Cliff Palace | Copan | Corozal | Esperanza | Flores | Guatemala City | Ithaca | Itza | Jocotan | La Junta | Little Ruin Canyon | Livingston | Merida | Metapan | Miami | Monte Alban | Nashua | New Orleans | Oaxaca | Orizaba | Pabellon de Arteaga | Palenque | Palizada | Palm Beach | Panzos | Paso Caballos | Peten | Piedras Negras | Piste | Prinzapolka | Progreso | Puebla City | Puerto Barrios | Puerto Cortez | Puerto Morelos | Puerto San Jose | Quetzaltenango | El Remate | Rio de Janeiro | Rochester | San Cristobal | San Francisco | San Lorenzo | San Pedro Sula | San Salvador | Santa Fe | Sayaxche | Sipacate | Socorro | Springfield | Swarthmore | Tapachula | Tegucigalpa | Ticul | Tikal | Topoxte | Trujillo | Tulum | Tuxtla Gutierrez | Uaxactun | Utila | Valladolid | Wilkes-Barre | Worcester | X-Kanchakan | Xocenpich | Yaloch | Zacapa | Zacatecoluca 
 Abstract:  The 39 volumes of Sylvanus ("Vay") Griswold Morley diaries span 42 years of the first-half of the twentieth century, and provide textured accounts of Morley's personal affairs, archaeological expeditions in Central and South America, and developments of World War I and II in South America. Morley began keeping a journal while he was in school (1905) and continued maintaining it until 1946, a year before his death the year before his death (1947). Notably, all entries are typed, enabling researchers to quickly scan volumes for specific interests. 
    
Morley's early diaries provide intimate accounts of personal affairs, including his romantic relationships and education at Harvard University. In addition to documenting his budding relationship with Alice Williams, whom he would marry in 1908 and divorce in 1914, Morley writes at length about the planning of his first field trip to the Yucatan (1906-07). During that trip, he provides rich accounts of Havana (2/4/1907), Uxmal (2/15/1907), and his first excavation (8/19/1907).
 
Starting in 1912, his diary takes on a closer resemblance to a field notebook, with detailed accounts of his excavations in Belize, Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, and Mexico. Interspersed in those records are fascinating accounts of the World War I and World War II, including oblique references to Morley's espionage work. For example, on January 9, 1914 he writes of a "curious telegram warning" from Washington: "'Make no affiliations in the C.matter. This is a danger signal. Await further advices.' I cannot imagine what this can mean. Is it a warning against H.? I sent the following reply: 'Have made no affiliations whatever. Will make none. Will preserve absolute secrecy and keep free from all entanglements. My case is in your hands. Am awaiting further instructions.' Think I will hear by Monday."
 
As the war unfolded, Morley recorded its effects in both Central and South America, including President Woodrow Wilson's "destructive" policy in Mexico (2/13/1914), the geopolitical scramble for Guatemala, and the "key-stone of the arch between the Rio Grande and the canal" (12/8/1917). Later, at the outset of World War II, Morley notes Japanese encroachment on the Dutch East Indies (2/19/1941), and even the attack on Pearl Harbor, "a series of shots that literally were heard around the world" (12/29/1941).
 
In fact, war proves disruptive for Morley's work. A colleague, Dr. Moise La Fleur, is killed during a Mexican chicleros attack (5/17-19/1916), an incident from which Morley does not soon recover. Moreover his excavation of Chichen Itza is badly delayed until 4/28/1924.
 
Nevertheless, researchers interested in both the history of South America and the field of archaeology will be rewarded with meticulous descriptions of excavations conducted between the 1920s-1940s.
 
    
The 39 volumes of Sylvanus ("Vay") Griswold Morley diaries span 42 years of the first-half of the twentieth century, and provide textured accounts of Morley's personal affairs, archaeological expeditions in Central and South America, and developments of World War I and II in South America. Morley began keeping a journal while he was in school (1905) and continued maintaining it until 1946, a year before his death the year before his death (1947). Notably, all entries are typed, enabling researchers to quickly scan volumes for specific interests.
 
Morley's early diaries provide intimate accounts of personal affairs, including his romantic relationships and education at Harvard University. In addition to documenting his budding relationship with Alice Williams, whom he would marry in 1908 and divorce in 1914, Morley writes at length about the planning of his first field trip to the Yucatan (1906-07). During that trip, he provides rich accounts of Havana (2/4/1907), Uxmal (2/15/1907), and his first excavation (8/19/1907).
 
Starting in 1912, his diary takes on a closer resemblance to a field notebook, with detailed accounts of his excavations in Belize, Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, and Mexico. Interspersed in those records are fascinating accounts of the World War I and World War II, including oblique references to Morley's espionage work. For example, on January 9, 1914 he writes of a "curious telegram warning" from Washington: "'Make no affiliations in the C.matter. This is a danger signal. Await further advices.' I cannot imagine what this can mean. Is it a warning against H.? I sent the following reply: 'Have made no affiliations whatever. Will make none. Will preserve absolute secrecy and keep free from all entanglements. My case is in your hands. Am awaiting further instructions.' Think I will hear by Monday."
 
As the war unfolded, Morley recorded its effects in both Central and South America, including President Woodrow Wilson's "destructive" policy in Mexico (2/13/1914), the geopolitical scramble for Guatemala, and the "key-stone of the arch between the Rio Grande and the canal" (12/8/1917). Later, at the outset of World War II, Morley notes Japanese encroachment on the Dutch East Indies (2/19/1941), and even the attack on Pearl Harbor, "a series of shots that literally were heard around the world" (12/29/1941).
 
In fact, war proves disruptive for Morley's work. A colleague, Dr. Moise La Fleur, is killed during a Mexican chicleros attack (5/17-19/1916), an incident from which Morley does not soon recover. Moreover his excavation of Chichen Itza is badly delayed until 4/28/1924.
 
Nevertheless, researchers interested in both the history of South America and the field of archaeology will be rewarded with meticulous descriptions of excavations conducted between the 1920s-1940s.
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  Selected Quotations
  • Anxiety about the Chichen Itza project: "I am good for nothing to-day. My anxiety is such that when I try to concentrate my heart jumps into my mouth. A thousand times look at my watch. It reads ten I think twelve in Washington. And so it has been all day. I have done my best now the only thing to do is to wait" (1/15/1914)

  • Acknowledges difficulty of diary-writing: "These annual diaries of mind begin (usually) the day I leave Washington and should continue until I get back, but in looking over them I find that they usually stop when I get back to civilization as expressed by some frontier-town at the edge of the bush on my last trip there into. Perhaps this year of 1922 I may do better but quien sabe, a real diary of events in these eventful countries is a real business to keep going and I may fall by the wayside" (1/10/1922)

  • On marriage and work: "How could I think that June morning of 1923 10 years ago as we sat around the big mahogany table in the Board Room of the Administration Building there in Washington, that just 10 years hence I would be concluding the arrangements with the Mexican Government, which that report then presented was to inaugurate. Just 10 years getting to it. The European War intervened, came too the smashing of my married life, and a tremendous change in me. From an old-fashioned, highly conservative, and unworldly young man, I have changed into—well at least I love my work and I hope have built higher and higher ideals for myself in it. As for the rest in a few years we are gone for always never never to return. Oppressive as that thought is, it is due to our own personal conceit, it is not too dreadful. This world is a delightful place to be alive in, and the privilege of living in it at all, is worth the pains and trials that living necessarily entails" (6/6/1923)
 
 Subjects:  Archaeology. | Aztec art. | Aztec architecture. | Carnegie Institute. | Central America. | Diaries. | Expedition | Mayan hieroglyphic research | South America. | Travel. | United States--Politics and government. | World War I. | World War II. 
 Collection:  Sylvanus Griswold Morley diaries, 1905-1947  (Mss.B.M828)  
  Go to the collection
 
12.Title:  Albert Charles Peale Diaries (1864-1877)
 Dates:  1864 - 1877 
 Extent:  9 volumes  
 Locations:  Baltimore | Bear River | Blackfoot | Buffalo Peak | Cheyenne | Chicago | Colorado Springs | Council Bluffs | Denver | Fairplay | Fremont Butte | Hamilton | Kansas City | Ogden | Omaha | Philadelphia | Pikes Peak | Richmond | Savannah | Soda Springs | Washington D.C. | Wilmington 
 Abstract:  Albert C. Peale Papers contain nine volumes that might be classified as diaries. These volumes traverse the American Civil War and Reconstruction period (1864-1877) and provide a window into the exploration and conquest of what is today Colorado, Wyoming, and Utah. The great-grandson of Charles Willson Peale, Albert Charles Peale was a prominent geologist in and author of numerous books in geology, mineralogy, and paleobotany. His journals offer a glimpse into his contributions to the Ferdinand Hayden expeditions, which explored and mapped the western United States. In furnishing numerous accounts of local indigenous peoples, including the Bannock and Shosoni, these volumes may interest scholars researching Native America, western exploration, the fields of geology and mineralogy, and the history of science. 
    
The first three volumes in the Albert C. Peale Papers are the most idiosyncratic. They include a daybook with weather observations (3/10-5/18/1864), a diary associated with a tour of Washington, D.C. during President Andrew Johnson's administration (c.1865-1869), and a lecture notebook pertaining to studies at the University of Pennsylvania. Of those early volumes, A. C. Peale's diary of his tour of Washington D.C. is perhaps most noteworthy. It recounts his travels from Philadelphia through Wilmington and Baltimore, tours of monuments and government buildings, including the U.S. Patent Office, Government Printing Office, and White House, and a handshake with President Johnson during that tour (2/7/1865).
 
The remaining six diaries (1872-1877) are devoted to various western expeditions in what is today Colorado, Wyoming, and Utah. In his first diary (5/15-7/20/1872), A. C. Peale recounts his travel by rail from Philadelphia to Omaha, from which he would conduct his western expeditions. The second volume (5/29-8/15/1873), devotes significant attention to his mineralogical work, including gathering fossils, documenting canyons and volcanic peaks, and ascending various peaks and plateaus. Notably, he references photographer William Henry Jackson, who he writes "disturbed us to take a picture." (8/8/1873). The next two diaries (8/16-10/26/1873 and 5/14/1873-7/18/1874) recount the movement of the party over the next year, most especially campsites, weather problems, and travel constraints. The latter volume also records trip to Savannah (11/20/1873) and includes some accounts in the back of the journal.
 
The final two volumes continue in much the same vein, but offer records of interactions with Bannock and Shosoni Indians. The diary dated 7/19-11/10/1874 documents A. C. Peale's expeditions along branches of the Gunnison River, during which he encounters local tribes on multiple occasions (8/29/1874 and 9/20/1874). The final diary (5/27-10/9/1877), which corresponds with trips into western Wyoming, records numerous interactions with Bannock and Shosoni. For example, A. C. Peale writes that a Shosoni woman shares news of a fight between the whites and the Sioux (6/7/1877), and he commends the English of Bannock outside a ranch near Smith Fork (6/29/1877). Not all interactions are harmonious, however. A. C. Peale also records that Bannock kill two teamsters (8/8/1877) and that one of his his party (Gibbon) loses 300 new guns in a fight (8/23/1877).
 
    
Albert C. Peale Papers contain nine volumes that might be classified as diaries. These volumes traverse the American Civil War and Reconstruction period (1864-1877) and provide a window into the exploration and conquest of what is today Colorado, Wyoming, and Utah. The great-grandson of Charles Willson Peale, Albert Charles Peale was a prominent geologist in and author of numerous books in geology, mineralogy, and paleobotany. His journals offer a glimpse into his contributions to the Ferdinand Hayden expeditions, which explored and mapped the western United States. In furnishing numerous accounts of local indigenous peoples, including the Bannock and Shosoni, these volumes may interest scholars researching Native America, western exploration, the fields of geology and mineralogy, and the history of science.
 
The first three volumes in the Albert C. Peale Papers are the most idiosyncratic. They include a daybook with weather observations (3/10-5/18/1864), a diary associated with a tour of Washington, D.C. during President Andrew Johnson's administration (c.1865-1869), and a lecture notebook pertaining to studies at the University of Pennsylvania. Of those early volumes, A. C. Peale's diary of his tour of Washington D.C. is perhaps most noteworthy. It recounts his travels from Philadelphia through Wilmington and Baltimore, tours of monuments and government buildings, including the U.S. Patent Office, Government Printing Office, and White House, and a handshake with President Johnson during that tour (2/7/1865).
 
The remaining six diaries (1872-1877) are devoted to various western expeditions in what is today Colorado, Wyoming, and Utah. In his first diary (5/15-7/20/1872), A. C. Peale recounts his travel by rail from Philadelphia to Omaha, from which he would conduct his western expeditions. The second volume (5/29-8/15/1873), devotes significant attention to his mineralogical work, including gathering fossils, documenting canyons and volcanic peaks, and ascending various peaks and plateaus. Notably, he references photographer William Henry Jackson, who he writes "disturbed us to take a picture." (8/8/1873). The next two diaries (8/16-10/26/1873 and 5/14/1873-7/18/1874) recount the movement of the party over the next year, most especially campsites, weather problems, and travel constraints. The latter volume also records trip to Savannah (11/20/1873) and includes some accounts in the back of the journal.
 
The final two volumes continue in much the same vein, but offer records of interactions with Bannock and Shosoni Indians. The diary dated 7/19-11/10/1874 documents A. C. Peale's expeditions along branches of the Gunnison River, during which he encounters local tribes on multiple occasions (8/29/1874 and 9/20/1874). The final diary (5/27-10/9/1877), which corresponds with trips into western Wyoming, records numerous interactions with Bannock and Shosoni. For example, A. C. Peale writes that a Shosoni woman shares news of a fight between the whites and the Sioux (6/7/1877), and he commends the English of Bannock outside a ranch near Smith Fork (6/29/1877). Not all interactions are harmonious, however. A. C. Peale also records that Bannock kill two teamsters (8/8/1877) and that one of his his party (Gibbon) loses 300 new guns in a fight (8/23/1877).
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 Subjects:  Accounts. | American Civil War, 1861-1865 | American Western Life | Bannock Indians | Diaries. | Expedition | Geology. | Indians of North America--West (U.S.) | Indigenous people. | Johnson, Andrew, 1808-1875. | Mineralogy. | Railroad | Shoshoni Indians. | Sioux Nation. | Science. | Travel. | United States--Civilization--1865-1918. | University of Pennsylvania. | Weather. 
 Collection:  Albert C. Peale Papers  (Mss.SMs.Coll.5)  
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13.Title:  William Dunbar and Zebulon Pike Journals (1804-1806)
 Dates:  1804 - 1806 
 Extent:  3 volumes  
 Locations:  Concord | Hot Springs | Natchez | Saint Catherine's Landing | Saint Louis | Washita 
 Abstract:  The Expedition Journals feature three travel journals bound in a single volume. The first two document William Dunbar's expedition up the Red and Ouachita Rivers to the Hot Springs of Arkansas in 1804-1805. Although few contemporary locations are named, they include numerous coordinates that researchers may use to track the journey. "Journal... to the Mouth of the Red River" furnishes particularly lush descriptions of the settlers (e.g. 10/21/1804) and indigenous peoples (11/24/1804) in the region. The second journal records technical data from the expedition, including a thermometrical log. Both journals dovetail nicely with that of traveling companion, George Hunter, also available at the APS (Mss.B.H912).; The final journal recounts an expedition to explore the geography of the Mississippi River led by Lt. Zebulon Montgomery Pike between 1805-1806. The Pike journal provides a daily account of the activities of the expedition during an early exploration into present day Minnesota. Notably, that journal includes significant attention to exchanges between settlers and local indigenous tribes (e.g. 9/3/1805, 9/10/1805, 9/24-25/1805). That volume has been printed with variations and omissions in An Account of Expeditions to the Sources of the Mississippi and through the Western Parts of Louisiana... (Philadelphia, 1810), and it was edited in Donald Jackson, ed., The Journals of Zebulon Pike: with Letters and Related Documents (Norman, Okla., 1966). Bound together, the Dunbar and Pike volumes ought to interest a range of scholars researching U.S. exploration and Native America in the early national period. 
    
 
    
The Expedition Journals feature three travel journals bound in a single volume. The first two document William Dunbar's expedition up the Red and Ouachita Rivers to the Hot Springs of Arkansas in 1804-1805. Although few contemporary locations are named, they include numerous coordinates that researchers may use to track the journey. "Journal... to the Mouth of the Red River" furnishes particularly lush descriptions of the settlers (e.g. 10/21/1804) and indigenous peoples (11/24/1804) in the region. The second journal records technical data from the expedition, including a thermometrical log. Both journals dovetail nicely with that of traveling companion, George Hunter, also available at the APS (Mss.B.H912).; The final journal recounts an expedition to explore the geography of the Mississippi River led by Lt. Zebulon Montgomery Pike between 1805-1806. The Pike journal provides a daily account of the activities of the expedition during an early exploration into present day Minnesota. Notably, that journal includes significant attention to exchanges between settlers and local indigenous tribes (e.g. 9/3/1805, 9/10/1805, 9/24-25/1805). That volume has been printed with variations and omissions in An Account of Expeditions to the Sources of the Mississippi and through the Western Parts of Louisiana... (Philadelphia, 1810), and it was edited in Donald Jackson, ed., The Journals of Zebulon Pike: with Letters and Related Documents (Norman, Okla., 1966). Bound together, the Dunbar and Pike volumes ought to interest a range of scholars researching U.S. exploration and Native America in the early national period.
 
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  Selected Quotations
  • Dunbar: "On the left is a small settlement commenced by a man and his wife: a covered frame of rough poles without walls serves for a house, and Couple of acres of Indian corn had been cultivated, which sufficed to stock their little magazine with bread for the year, the forest supplies Venison, Bear, turkey &c, the river fowl and fish, the skins of the wild animals and an abundance of the finest honey being carried to market enables the new settler to supply himself largely with all other necessary articles, in a year or two he arrives at a state of independence, he purchases horses, cows & other domestic animals, perhaps a slave also who shares with the labours and productions of his fields & of the adjoining forests. How happy the contrast, when we compare the fortune of the new settler in the U.S. with the misery of the half staving, oppressed and degraded peasant of Europe!!" (10/21/1804)

  • Dunbar: "By the expression planes or prairies in this place is not to be understood a dead flat resembling certain savannahs, whose soil is stiff and impenetrable, often under water & bearing only a coarse grass resembling weeds, very far different are the western Prairies, which expression signifies only a country without timber: Those Prairies are neither flat nor hilly, but undulating into gently swelling lawns and expanding into spacious vallies in the center of which is always found a little timber growing upon the banks of brooks and rivulets of the finest water, the whole of the prairies is represented to be composed of the richest and most fertile soil, the most luxuriant & succulent herbage cover the surface of the Earth interspersed with millions of flowers and flowering shrubs the most ornamental and adorning kinds: Those who have viewed only a skirt of those prairies, speak of them with a degree of enthusiasm as if it was only there that Nature was to be found in a state truly perfect, they declare that the fertility and beauty of the rising grounds, the extreme richness of the Vallies, the coolness and excellent quality of the waters found in every Valley, the Salubrity of the atmosphere and above all the grandeur and majesty of the enchanting landscape which this country presents, inspires the soul with sensations not to be felt in any other region of the Globe. This Paradise is now very thinly inhabited by a few tribes of Savages and by immense herds of wild Cattle (Bison) which people those countries…the whole of it being cultivable, it will admit the fullest population, and will at a future day vie with the best cultivated and most populous countries on the Globe (1/10/1805)

  • Pike: "It is astonishing to me, what a dread the Indians have of the Americans in this quarter. I have frequently seen them go round Islands to avoid meeting my Boat. It appears evident to me that the Traders have taken great pains to impress on the Minds of the Savages, an idea of our being a very Vindictive, Ferocious, and Warlike people. This impression was given no doubt with an evil intention, but when they find that our conduct towards them is guided by magnanimity and justice, instead of operating in an injurious manner, it will have the effect of making them reverence, at same time, they fear us" (9/3/1805)
 
 Subjects:  Caddo Indians. | Chickasaw Indians. | Chippewa Tribe | Dakota Indians. | Diaries. | Expedition | Exploration & encounters | Hot Springs (Ark.) | Indian traders. | Louisiana Purchase. | Meteorology. | Minnesota. | Mississippi River--Description and travel. | Native America | Ojibwa Indians. | Osage Indians. | Travel. | United States--Civilization--1783-1865. | Weather. 
 Collection:  Expedition Journals  (Mss.917.7.D91)  
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14.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
 
15.Title:  Theodosius Dobzhansky Diaries (1934-1975)
 Dates:  1934 - 1975 
 Extent:  47 volumes  
 Locations:  Adelaide | Auckland | Basel | Bogota | Bombay | Boston | Brisbane | Cairns | Cairo | Caracas | Casablanca | Christchurch | Dublin | Florence | Geneva | Gothenburg | Houston | London | Marseille | Melbourne | New York | Paris | Perugia | Philadelphia | Rennes | Rome | San Salvador | São Paulo | Stockholm | Thessaloniki | Wellington 
 Abstract:  The Dobzhansky Papers feature 47 volumes spanning 1934-1975. (The boxes in which they are enclosed also include other notebooks and workbooks without sequential entries.) These diaries ought to interest researchers studying genetics and evolutionary biology, early-twentieth-century travel expeditions (particularly into the Amazon), the creationist debate (especially in textbooks and public schools), the post-war university (Columbia University, in particular), South American politics, and Dobzhansky's biography. 
    
Russian-readers will be richly rewarded, given that Dobzhansky modulates entries between Russian and English. In some entries, he self-consciously reflects on the language he opts to use. For example, on February 16, 1952, he imagines his child (Sophie) as the audience of his entries: "I am switching to English, in order that my child would find it easier to accompany her father's experiences, is she wants to accompany them."
 
Even in diaries recorded predominantly in Russian, Dobzhansky encloses numerous ephemera—business cards, letters, hand-drawn sketches, recognitions/awards, medical test results, newspaper clippings, and more—accessible to English-speakers. In many of his diaries from the 1950s and 1960s, typed letters provide some insights into his thoughts on health, mortality, and faith (e.g. 2/16/1952, 5/16/1957, 7/16/1968, 10/13/1969)
 
(strained) relations with his children (e.g. 5/16/1957, 10/28/1968, 12/31/1968)
 
and career (3/25/1970
 
6/30/1970, 1/25/1975).
 
Dobzhansky traveled widely, providing particularly detailed accounts of South America and the American West. While English entries largely abstains from discussing politics, he does occasionally discuss Brazilian politics (e.g. 9/7/1954, 10/16/1955), and the election of Richard Nixon, about whom he is consistently critical (e.g. 11/6/1970, 12/31/1973, 8/8/1974).
 
Throughout his four decades of journal-writing, Dobzhansky expresses one consistent concern: his desire to continue doing useful work. Marking his final birthday, he writes, "So, I have lived ¾ of a century. Today begins the last quarter, or rather past thereof…Oh God, give me power to finish my life serving you by doing my life work in science! In 75 years I have not yet exhausted either my interest or, I hope, my ability" (1/25/1975).
 
    
The Dobzhansky Papers feature 47 volumes spanning 1934-1975. (The boxes in which they are enclosed also include other notebooks and workbooks without sequential entries.) These diaries ought to interest researchers studying genetics and evolutionary biology, early-twentieth-century travel expeditions (particularly into the Amazon), the creationist debate (especially in textbooks and public schools), the post-war university (Columbia University, in particular), South American politics, and Dobzhansky's biography.
 
Russian-readers will be richly rewarded, given that Dobzhansky modulates entries between Russian and English. In some entries, he self-consciously reflects on the language he opts to use. For example, on February 16, 1952, he imagines his child (Sophie) as the audience of his entries: "I am switching to English, in order that my child would find it easier to accompany her father's experiences, is she wants to accompany them."
 
Even in diaries recorded predominantly in Russian, Dobzhansky encloses numerous ephemera—business cards, letters, hand-drawn sketches, recognitions/awards, medical test results, newspaper clippings, and more—accessible to English-speakers. In many of his diaries from the 1950s and 1960s, typed letters provide some insights into his thoughts on health, mortality, and faith (e.g. 2/16/1952, 5/16/1957, 7/16/1968, 10/13/1969)
 
(strained) relations with his children (e.g. 5/16/1957, 10/28/1968, 12/31/1968)
 
and career (3/25/1970
 
6/30/1970, 1/25/1975).
 
Dobzhansky traveled widely, providing particularly detailed accounts of South America and the American West. While English entries largely abstains from discussing politics, he does occasionally discuss Brazilian politics (e.g. 9/7/1954, 10/16/1955), and the election of Richard Nixon, about whom he is consistently critical (e.g. 11/6/1970, 12/31/1973, 8/8/1974).
 
Throughout his four decades of journal-writing, Dobzhansky expresses one consistent concern: his desire to continue doing useful work. Marking his final birthday, he writes, "So, I have lived ¾ of a century. Today begins the last quarter, or rather past thereof…Oh God, give me power to finish my life serving you by doing my life work in science! In 75 years I have not yet exhausted either my interest or, I hope, my ability" (1/25/1975).
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  Selected Quotations
  • Explanation for switching to English: "I am switching to English, in other than my child would find it easier to accompany her father's experiences, is she wants to accompany them. I am going through strong spiritual crisis, and hope that it results to be beneficial. The starting point is, of course, a fear of death, and a fear that death may be close…I feel a terrific desire to live and all my soul rebels against death. But whatever comes has to be accepted, although acceptance is not easy. So, a new spiritual balance has to be found. It can be found only by renunciation of personal vanity, pride, and ambition, and mainly through love—love of the world as it is, and seen as it is. I have to reach this, however difficult it may be for my passionately self-assertive nature. Have decided to write an article on evolution as a basis of a religious world view. But it will not be [polished] but laid to rest. If I live develop it, possibly to a book form. If I die, it must be polished posthumously. Other plans will have to wait for Tuesday when I see the physician specialist on thyroid" (2/16/1952)

  • On his forced retirement: "No use pretending, it is a terribly sad day. It is the last day of my being a regularly employed, active, recognized professor. Tomorrow I shall be emeritus, retired, discarded, pensioner. This after 50 or 51 teaching in institution of higher learning—50 since I became "assistant" in zoology in my faculty of agriculture, 51 since I started teaching at the ["Rablek"] in Kiev University. Tomorrow, I have no official duty, old, at best tolerated in same laboratory, superfluous "senior" member, waiting for death to remove this relic." (6/30/1970)

  • Nixon's resignation: "What a day—the news of Nixon's resignation! And it was less than 2 years go this sinister crook was at [that] time well known to be a crook, was elected by two-thirds of the American electorate. A bad recommendation for democracy which do that. And yet today's event is a high mark for the same democracy—a crook can eventually be kicked out. This cannot happen in a communist dictatorship, where Watergate would never become known, and if it were know[n] would be considered a normal government measure. Anyway, I was fearful that I will not outlive Nixon's presidency. I did outlive him. But for him, sic transit gloria mundi, though he is crook, what a fall from what a height" (8/8/1974)
 
 Subjects:  Australia. | Central America. | Columbia University | Creationism. | Diaries. | Europe. | Evolutionary developmental biology. | Expedition | Genetics. | Higher education & society | Nixon, Richard M. (Richard Milhous), 1913-1994. | Race. | Russians--United States. | Science. | South America. | Travel. | United States--Civilization--1945- | United States--Politics and government. | University of California, Davis 
 Collection:  Theodosius Dobzhansky Papers  (Mss.B.D65)  
  Go to the collection
 
16.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)  
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17.Title:  Vaux Family Diaries (1759-1951)
 Dates:  1759 - 1951 
 Extent:  160 volumes  
 Locations:  Adirondack | Albany | Atlanta | Atlantic City | Baltimore | Bar Harbor | Bath, Maine | Bath, United Kingdom | Belfast | Bethlehem | Birmingham, United Kingdom | Boston | Bristol, United Kingdom | Bryn Mawr | Burlington | Calgary | Cambridge | Charleston | Chicago | Cologne | Denver | Detroit | Dublin | Edinburgh | Edmonton | Field | Geneva | Glacier | Glasgow | Grand Canyon | Harrisburg | Hartford | Haverford | Heidelberg | Jersey City | Kansas City | Kennebunkport | Lake Louise | Lake Mohawk | Leeds | Liverpool | London | Los Angeles | Lucerne | Mammoth Springs | Manchester | Marquette | Milan | Milwaukee | Minneapolis | Montclair | Monterey | Montreal | Narragansett | New Brunswick | New Haven | New York | Newport | Niagara Falls | Norfolk | North Bend | Oxford | Paris | Pasadena | Philadelphia | Pittsburg | Plymouth | Port Arthur | Portland, Maine | Portland, Oregon | Portsmouth | Quebec City | Rapid City | Reno | Richmond | Saint Andrews | Saint Gallen | Saint Paul | Salem | Salt Lake City | San Antonio | San Francisco | Santa Barbara | Santa Clara | Santa Fe | Santa Monica | Sheffield | Sioux City | St. Louis | Swarthmore | Tacoma | Tuskegee | Vancouver | Victoria | Washington D.C. | Winnipeg | Wiscasset | Yosemite Valley 
 Abstract:  The sprawling Vaux Family Papers include at least 160 volumes of diaries traversing two centuries of American history (1759-1951). While those journals are maintained predominantly by generations of George, Richard, and William Vaux the collection is bookended by Richard Vaux (1781) and Mary Walsh James Vaux (1906-1951), both of whom supply some of the most surprising records in the collection. (In fact, the Vaux family included some 10 Georges, three Richards, and two Williams.) Reading across these papers, researchers will discover accounts of early American religion during the Second Great Awakening (especially the Society of Friends and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints), European towns and cities between the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, late-nineteenth century conservation (with accounts of 1880s Yosemite and Theodore Roosevelt), ante and postbellum U.S. politics (including short-lived factions such as the Locofocos), the fields of business, architecture, and photography, and women's history. 
    
The majority Vaux diaries are maintained at least two generations of George Vaux (1800-1927). Those volumes include entries that may interest researchers investigating late-antebellum politics, religion, and Vaux family history (1854-59 diaries), postbellum weather and meteorological observations (1853-1915 daybooks), late-nineteenth century architecture and urban development ("Llsyfran Diary," 1886-1915), and the religious practices of American Friends in the nineteenth century (1825-1927 and 1886-1901 diaries). However, there are also noteworthy volumes from William Vaux, Richard Vaux, Samuel Sansom, and Mary Vaux.
 
William Vaux
 
The diaries of William Vaux (1883-1908) may interest researchers exploring Philadelphia regional history, western expeditions, late-nineteenth century science (especially photography), late-nineteenth century presidential politics, and the 1893 World's Fair, for which Vaux includes a dedicated volume. In addition to accounts of education, marriage, funerals, and the religious practices of the Philadelphia Yearly Meeting, William Vaux offers at least one account of Brigham Young and the Mormons (1883 diary). Most volumes emphasize his participation in university life (Haverford College and the Drexel Institute), athletics (the American Alpine Club), and postbellum science (the Photographic Society of Philadelphia, the Quaker Asylum and Penitentiary), with occasional notes pertaining to presidential politics, such as the election and assassination of William McKinley.
 
Richard Vaux
 
Two volumes contained in the Richard Vaux papers warrant careful attention. A typed transcript of a 1781 diary (1/1-10/27) furnishes an account of a loyalist during the American Revolution. As detailed in George Vaux's short introduction to the diary, Vaux apprenticed with Samuel Sansom in Philadelphia beginning in 1768. (The original diary, which begins in March 1779 is unavailable.) A loyalist, he spent much of the war in London and returned to Philadelphia shortly after the revolution (c. 1784). Each entry includes paragraph-length account of personal affairs of and socializing with the English upper class, typically beginning with breakfast meetings and running until often quite late at night (usually Vaux notes that he returns home around 11 or midnight, though several entries are much later). Typical social events include breakfasts and dinners (and the individuals involved), pipe smoking, excursions around England, theater showings (e.g. Covent Garden Play House), daily visits to coffee shops (especially Lloyd's Coffee House), painting exhibitions (including the work of Benjamin West), and the Free Mason Lodge. As George Vaux notes in his introduction, Richard is a "man of the world." He also spends a fairly extraordinary amount of time and money on inns and taverns (including Ambrose Lloyd's, Queens Head Tavern, Bull Tavern, March's Tavern, and Falcon Inn). Equally descriptive are his meticulous accounts of expenses: coffee houses and coaches are the most frequent expenses, though Richard Vaux also notes spending on charity, tobacco, tea, newspapers, baths, books, brandy, and milk.
 
Beginning in September 1781, Richard Vaux embarks on a transatlantic voyage, during which he measures daily progress (distance traveled) and coordinates (latitudes). His time on board is marked by ubiquitous illness, particularly sea sickness, injuries, and fevers. The reader also gains a rich sense of the sailors' diets (including pickled tongues) and daily trials (e.g. pests, as Richard records "dismal nights with the bugs" on multiple occasions, including 10/8 and 10/16). Notably, the narrative ends when the ship is boarded by the Hendrik Privateer, a New England ship under the command of Thomas Bensom, which seizes their brig as a "prize to America" and ransacks their stores (10/26).
 
Samuel Sansom
 
Also included in the Richard Vaux papers is the European travel journal of Samuel Sansom (1759-1760), which provides some of the lengthiest, most conversational, and public-facing diary entries researchers will encounter anywhere in the APS collections. The Sansom diary opens with a note from his former apprentice, Richard Vaux, and other front matter suggests that the journal was transcribed at sea from loose pages so that the author could enable his friends to "partake with him in the entertainment he experiences (in the days of his youth)." The volume also features an excerpt from Elizabeth Drinker's journal with a silhouette of Sansom and a note that Sansom left London on 4/1/1760 and returned to Philadelphia on 5/4/1760.
 
Sansom's account begins at the outset of his transatlantic journey, and pays significant attention to travel delays
 
in fact, leaks require his ship to return to Philadelphia just nine days after departure. Upon arriving in London, Sansom travels widely and socializes continuously, particularly with the English upper class. He attends Quaker meetings, frequents coffee houses, and he is preoccupied with various curiosities, from wax figures (11/13/1759) to a dwarf and giant (2/22/1760). Sansom proves a studious observer of the mechanics of production (e.g. grist mills), English towns and cities (especially Birmingham), and Quaker sermons and religious practices. He regularly intersperses prosaic observations with grand musings (reference the 12/20/1759 and 2/1/1760 entries for examples) intended to instruct and delight the friends he imagines will later read his volume with rapt anticipation.
 
Mary Vaux
 
Finally, the Mary Walsh James Vaux maintained a diary in 1906 and for most of the period spanning 1921-1951. Those 40 volumes may interest researchers interested in women's history, Philadelphia regional history, Vaux family history, western expeditions, and the outbreak of WWII. Vaux's diaries include inspirational quotes, notes from religious meetings, lectures, and receptions, shopping lists, addresses, and notes on the weather. Her entries frequently reference the Pennsylvania Yearly Meeting (Society of Friends) as well as the League of Women Voters, Female Society for the Relief and Employ of the Poor, and the Salvation Army. Diaries sometimes include ephemera, such as dried leaves and photographs (1927).
 
Although Mary Vaux tends to record cursory notes, sometimes her entries provide insights into her emotional state. Vaux appears to have suffered from depression (reference, for example, 10/29/1927, 11/3/1927, 11/13/1939, and 5/4/1940) and often register significant shifts in mood (compare 9/24/1906 to 11/4/1906). A notebook also appears to include numerous personal letters Mary Vaux collected from her husband, George Vaux, spanning 1932-34. (Each entry begins, "George Vaux is here to speak to Mary"). World War II surfaces in her later diary entries. While Mary Vaux rarely discusses politics or war, her 1940 Pomernatz diary includes draft numbers in place of the 10/27-29 entries. The 12/7/1941 entry in her Excelsior diary and the 12/8/1941 entry in her Pomernatz diary note the outbreak of World War II.
 
    
The sprawling Vaux Family Papers include at least 160 volumes of diaries traversing two centuries of American history (1759-1951). While those journals are maintained predominantly by generations of George, Richard, and William Vaux the collection is bookended by Richard Vaux (1781) and Mary Walsh James Vaux (1906-1951), both of whom supply some of the most surprising records in the collection. (In fact, the Vaux family included some 10 Georges, three Richards, and two Williams.) Reading across these papers, researchers will discover accounts of early American religion during the Second Great Awakening (especially the Society of Friends and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints), European towns and cities between the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, late-nineteenth century conservation (with accounts of 1880s Yosemite and Theodore Roosevelt), ante and postbellum U.S. politics (including short-lived factions such as the Locofocos), the fields of business, architecture, and photography, and women's history.
 
The majority Vaux diaries are maintained at least two generations of George Vaux (1800-1927). Those volumes include entries that may interest researchers investigating late-antebellum politics, religion, and Vaux family history (1854-59 diaries), postbellum weather and meteorological observations (1853-1915 daybooks), late-nineteenth century architecture and urban development ("Llsyfran Diary," 1886-1915), and the religious practices of American Friends in the nineteenth century (1825-1927 and 1886-1901 diaries). However, there are also noteworthy volumes from William Vaux, Richard Vaux, Samuel Sansom, and Mary Vaux.
 
William Vaux
 
The diaries of William Vaux (1883-1908) may interest researchers exploring Philadelphia regional history, western expeditions, late-nineteenth century science (especially photography), late-nineteenth century presidential politics, and the 1893 World's Fair, for which Vaux includes a dedicated volume. In addition to accounts of education, marriage, funerals, and the religious practices of the Philadelphia Yearly Meeting, William Vaux offers at least one account of Brigham Young and the Mormons (1883 diary). Most volumes emphasize his participation in university life (Haverford College and the Drexel Institute), athletics (the American Alpine Club), and postbellum science (the Photographic Society of Philadelphia, the Quaker Asylum and Penitentiary), with occasional notes pertaining to presidential politics, such as the election and assassination of William McKinley.
 
Richard Vaux
 
Two volumes contained in the Richard Vaux papers warrant careful attention. A typed transcript of a 1781 diary (1/1-10/27) furnishes an account of a loyalist during the American Revolution. As detailed in George Vaux's short introduction to the diary, Vaux apprenticed with Samuel Sansom in Philadelphia beginning in 1768. (The original diary, which begins in March 1779 is unavailable.) A loyalist, he spent much of the war in London and returned to Philadelphia shortly after the revolution (c. 1784). Each entry includes paragraph-length account of personal affairs of and socializing with the English upper class, typically beginning with breakfast meetings and running until often quite late at night (usually Vaux notes that he returns home around 11 or midnight, though several entries are much later). Typical social events include breakfasts and dinners (and the individuals involved), pipe smoking, excursions around England, theater showings (e.g. Covent Garden Play House), daily visits to coffee shops (especially Lloyd's Coffee House), painting exhibitions (including the work of Benjamin West), and the Free Mason Lodge. As George Vaux notes in his introduction, Richard is a "man of the world." He also spends a fairly extraordinary amount of time and money on inns and taverns (including Ambrose Lloyd's, Queens Head Tavern, Bull Tavern, March's Tavern, and Falcon Inn). Equally descriptive are his meticulous accounts of expenses: coffee houses and coaches are the most frequent expenses, though Richard Vaux also notes spending on charity, tobacco, tea, newspapers, baths, books, brandy, and milk.
 
Beginning in September 1781, Richard Vaux embarks on a transatlantic voyage, during which he measures daily progress (distance traveled) and coordinates (latitudes). His time on board is marked by ubiquitous illness, particularly sea sickness, injuries, and fevers. The reader also gains a rich sense of the sailors' diets (including pickled tongues) and daily trials (e.g. pests, as Richard records "dismal nights with the bugs" on multiple occasions, including 10/8 and 10/16). Notably, the narrative ends when the ship is boarded by the Hendrik Privateer, a New England ship under the command of Thomas Bensom, which seizes their brig as a "prize to America" and ransacks their stores (10/26).
 
Samuel Sansom
 
Also included in the Richard Vaux papers is the European travel journal of Samuel Sansom (1759-1760), which provides some of the lengthiest, most conversational, and public-facing diary entries researchers will encounter anywhere in the APS collections. The Sansom diary opens with a note from his former apprentice, Richard Vaux, and other front matter suggests that the journal was transcribed at sea from loose pages so that the author could enable his friends to "partake with him in the entertainment he experiences (in the days of his youth)." The volume also features an excerpt from Elizabeth Drinker's journal with a silhouette of Sansom and a note that Sansom left London on 4/1/1760 and returned to Philadelphia on 5/4/1760.
 
Sansom's account begins at the outset of his transatlantic journey, and pays significant attention to travel delays
 
in fact, leaks require his ship to return to Philadelphia just nine days after departure. Upon arriving in London, Sansom travels widely and socializes continuously, particularly with the English upper class. He attends Quaker meetings, frequents coffee houses, and he is preoccupied with various curiosities, from wax figures (11/13/1759) to a dwarf and giant (2/22/1760). Sansom proves a studious observer of the mechanics of production (e.g. grist mills), English towns and cities (especially Birmingham), and Quaker sermons and religious practices. He regularly intersperses prosaic observations with grand musings (reference the 12/20/1759 and 2/1/1760 entries for examples) intended to instruct and delight the friends he imagines will later read his volume with rapt anticipation.
 
Mary Vaux
 
Finally, the Mary Walsh James Vaux maintained a diary in 1906 and for most of the period spanning 1921-1951. Those 40 volumes may interest researchers interested in women's history, Philadelphia regional history, Vaux family history, western expeditions, and the outbreak of WWII. Vaux's diaries include inspirational quotes, notes from religious meetings, lectures, and receptions, shopping lists, addresses, and notes on the weather. Her entries frequently reference the Pennsylvania Yearly Meeting (Society of Friends) as well as the League of Women Voters, Female Society for the Relief and Employ of the Poor, and the Salvation Army. Diaries sometimes include ephemera, such as dried leaves and photographs (1927).
 
Although Mary Vaux tends to record cursory notes, sometimes her entries provide insights into her emotional state. Vaux appears to have suffered from depression (reference, for example, 10/29/1927, 11/3/1927, 11/13/1939, and 5/4/1940) and often register significant shifts in mood (compare 9/24/1906 to 11/4/1906). A notebook also appears to include numerous personal letters Mary Vaux collected from her husband, George Vaux, spanning 1932-34. (Each entry begins, "George Vaux is here to speak to Mary"). World War II surfaces in her later diary entries. While Mary Vaux rarely discusses politics or war, her 1940 Pomernatz diary includes draft numbers in place of the 10/27-29 entries. The 12/7/1941 entry in her Excelsior diary and the 12/8/1941 entry in her Pomernatz diary note the outbreak of World War II.
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  Selected Quotations
  • Samuel Sansom: headed to Bath "that famous place of resort for curiosity and pleasure" (10/17/1759)

  • George Vaux: "And so with this entry is closed the year 1898 and a new book is begun. I feel that the year just passed has been full to an unusual extent of trials and temptations hard indeed to bear. O for more resignation, more light, more faith" (12/31/1898)

  • Mary Vaux: "Got my license!" (5/26/1947)
 
 Subjects:  Accounts. | American religious cultures | Architecture. | Athenaeum of Philadelphia. | Blizzards. | British Museum. | Colonial America | Cosmopolitanism. | Diaries. | Europe--Politics and government. | Expedition | Franklin Institute (Philadelphia, Pa.) | Franklin, Benjamin, 1706-1790. | Loyalist | McKinley, William, 1843-1901. | Medicine. | Mental health. | Meteorology. | Mormon Church. | Photographic Society of Philadelphia | Photography. | Piracy. | Religion. | Roosevelt, Theodore, 1858-1919. | Science. | Slavery. | Society of Friends. | United States--Civilization--1783-1865. | United States--Civilization--1865-1918. | United States--Civilization--1918-1945. | United States--Civilization--1945- | United States--Politics and government. | United States--History--Revolution, 1775-1783. | Urban planning and environment | Weather. | Westminster Abbey. | Women--History. | World War I. | World War II. | World's Columbian Exposition (1893 : Chicago, Ill.) | Yellowstone National Park. | Young, Brigham, 1801-1877. 
 Collection:  Vaux Family Papers, 1701-1985  (Mss.Ms.Coll.73)  
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