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

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

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).
 

Five diaries traverse 1883-84: the Baffinland Diary & Notebook, 1883
 
Baffinland Diary, July 1883-January 1884
 
Wilhelm Weike Diary, June 1883-September 1884
 
Baffinland Diary, 1883
 
and Baffinland Diary, 1884.
 
The American Philosophical Society also possesses two diaries maintained as loose pages: seven pages from an 1888 diary, also available electronically (http://diglib.amphilsoc.org/islandora/object/text:19253#page/2/mode/1up) and 24 pages related to his 1911-12 lectures in Mexico.

The Boas collections include seven diaries that Franz Boas maintained between 1883-1912. These diaries will interest German-reading researchers interested Boas's work with the Baffinland Inuit and his lecture tour in Mexico. Non-German speakers may also browse these diaries for his personal sketches. These diaries ought to interest researchers exploring Boas's career and the history of anthropology, ethnography, and linguistics.
 
Five diaries traverse 1883-84: the Baffinland Diary & Notebook, 1883
 
Baffinland Diary, July 1883-January 1884
 
Wilhelm Weike Diary, June 1883-September 1884
 
Baffinland Diary, 1883
 
and Baffinland Diary, 1884.
 
The American Philosophical Society also possesses two diaries maintained as loose pages: seven pages from an 1888 diary, also available electronically (http://diglib.amphilsoc.org/islandora/object/text:19253#page/2/mode/1up) and 24 pages related to his 1911-12 lectures in Mexico.

This collection of seven volumes contains the minutes of various treaties the colony of Pennsylvania conducted with indigenous peoples. Notably, the volume with minutes for Indian treaties from 1758-1760 contains a journal into western areas taken in 1759 by George Croghan, agent of Sir William Johnson. This volume may interest scholars researching the Seven Years' War, colonial diplomacy, and Native America.
 

This collection contains at least seven diaries maintained in both English and Cherokee by William West Long between 1891-1917. Long, a member of the Cherokee Tribe, served as ethnographer Frank Gouldsmith Speck's primary consultant and collaborator. Long's journals include entries, accounts, notes, and curing formulas, with multiple notebooks related to the years 1911, 1913, 1916-17. Given that these volumes are culturally sensitive and have been maintained primarily in Cherokee (with no English translations), scholars might consider consulting with the Center for Native American and Indigenous Research (https://www.amphilsoc.org/library/CNAIR) as they examine these volumes.
 

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.
 

A similar printed version of the journal, edited by Anthony F.C. Wallace, was published in Pennsylvania History in 1952.

In a journal documenting his residence with the Seneca Nation in New York, Pennsylvania Quaker Halliday Jackson offers a detailed, daily account of his missionary life, travels, and Seneca customs at the turn of the nineteenth century (1798-99). Jackson offers numerous accounts of land, cultivation, and development, including early accounts of Pittsburg (p.8-9), a Seneca settlement (19), and Niagara Falls (163-64). Native American studies scholars may gravitate to the volume's descriptions of Seneca food preparation (17), marriage (148-9), alcohol consumption (14, 124-125), land deeds (53-54, 75), Quaker diplomacy (23-24, 32-33), and increasingly strained relations with backcountry settlers (126, 131-133, 146-47, 178-79), many of which are voiced by the Seneca themselves and transcribed by Jackson at council meetings. This volume also features entries that will interest scholars researching the early national period, including the Bank of the United States (75), the yellow fever epidemic (74, 114-15), and the death of George Washington (176).
 
A similar printed version of the journal, edited by Anthony F.C. Wallace, was published in Pennsylvania History in 1952.

As secretary to John Anstey, Loyalists' Claims Commissioner, Robert Woodruff offers a detailed record of the U.S. in the early national period from the unique vantage of an English loyalist. His journal (1785-1788) documents his trip through the Northeastern, mid-Atlantic, and Southeastern states (as far south as Georgia). In his travels, Woodruff references many colonial leaders, including George Washington (10/27/1986), Samuel Vaughan (11/2/1786), and Benjamin Franklin (11/4/1786). Notably, Woodruff dines in house where "Lord Cornwallis in December 1776 held a council of war whether he should cross the Delaware to attack General Washington" (10/30/1786), witnesses Franklin's reelection as President of the Pennsylvania state house (11/4/1786), and mentions the American Philosophical Society (5/8/1787).
 

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).