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1.Title:  Harriet Verena Evans Diary (1827-1844)
 Dates:  1827 - 1844 
 Extent:  1 volume  
 Locations:  Lancaster | Philadelphia 
 Abstract:  The Harriet Verena Evans journal is unlike any other in the APS collections. Evans began journaling late in life—on her 46th birthday, the same day that her 17-year-old son John died. Her recollections never stray far from that trauma. She returns to the death of her son with regularity, and his life appears to shape the form of her diary: she composes entries for exactly 17 years (4/28/1827-4/28/1844). The Evans diary is also unusual for its mode of composition. Interweaving homage to her son, scripture, religious self-assessment, and collected poetry, the Evans diary blends a woman's spiritual diary with a commonplace book. It is a remarkable volume that ought to interest researchers investigating women's history, antebellum mourning customs, and religious practice during the Second Great Awakening. 
    
The Evans journal begins on the day that her 17-year-old son John dies, cut down "in the bloom of health, in the beauty and vigour of youth" (4/28/1827). Over the next 17 years, the anniversaries of his birthday (2/5), death (4/29), and burial (5/1) serve as occasions for recollection and spiritual self-assessment. (So, too, do Christmas and New Year's Day.) Throughout the volume, Evans copies and composes scriptural and poetical verses that serve to transform her diary into a kind of commonplace book.
 
Although Evans regularly mourns the death of her son John, she also expresses concern for her other children, three of whom were enrolled at the University of Pennsylvania during a cholera outbreak. She writes, "The cholera that awful scourge which has been so long feared, has at last reached our city, and filled us with a dread and terror
 
every precaution that frail man could device is resorted to, to meet the fell destroyer—neither country nor town is exempt from its ravages" (7/25/1832).
 
Evans closes her journal on her 63rd birthday, 17 years after the death of her child, and "Sixteen years since I entered into Covenant with My God" (4/28/1844).
 
    
The Harriet Verena Evans journal is unlike any other in the APS collections. Evans began journaling late in life—on her 46th birthday, the same day that her 17-year-old son John died. Her recollections never stray far from that trauma. She returns to the death of her son with regularity, and his life appears to shape the form of her diary: she composes entries for exactly 17 years (4/28/1827-4/28/1844). The Evans diary is also unusual for its mode of composition. Interweaving homage to her son, scripture, religious self-assessment, and collected poetry, the Evans diary blends a woman's spiritual diary with a commonplace book. It is a remarkable volume that ought to interest researchers investigating women's history, antebellum mourning customs, and religious practice during the Second Great Awakening.
 
The Evans journal begins on the day that her 17-year-old son John dies, cut down "in the bloom of health, in the beauty and vigour of youth" (4/28/1827). Over the next 17 years, the anniversaries of his birthday (2/5), death (4/29), and burial (5/1) serve as occasions for recollection and spiritual self-assessment. (So, too, do Christmas and New Year's Day.) Throughout the volume, Evans copies and composes scriptural and poetical verses that serve to transform her diary into a kind of commonplace book.
 
Although Evans regularly mourns the death of her son John, she also expresses concern for her other children, three of whom were enrolled at the University of Pennsylvania during a cholera outbreak. She writes, "The cholera that awful scourge which has been so long feared, has at last reached our city, and filled us with a dread and terror
 
every precaution that frail man could device is resorted to, to meet the fell destroyer—neither country nor town is exempt from its ravages" (7/25/1832).
 
Evans closes her journal on her 63rd birthday, 17 years after the death of her child, and "Sixteen years since I entered into Covenant with My God" (4/28/1844).
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  Selected Quotations
  • "In one of those nights in which I suffered great anguish reflecting on the state of my child, now an inhabitant of the spiritual world, I fell into sleep and found myself in an open plain in which the only perceptible objects were two buildings of a conical form, but flat on the top, composed of a light smooth stone, and whose height exceeded any thing of the kind I had ever seen" (12/24/1827)

  • "The cholera that awful scourge which has been so long feared, has at last reached our city, and filled us with a dread and terror, every precaution that frail man could device is resorted to, to meet the fell destroyer—neither country nor town is exempt from its ravages" (7/25/1832)

  • "Sixteen years since I entered into Covenant with My God" (4/28/1844)
 
 Subjects:  Cholera. | Commonplace books. | Diaries. | Evangelicalism. | Literature. | Medicine. | Mourning customs. | Poetry. | Religion. | Social life and customs. | Spiritual life. | University of Pennsylvania. | Women--History. 
 Collection:  Harriet Verena Evans Diary  (Mss.B.Ev5)  
  Go to the collection
 
2.Title:  Mary Rosamond Haas Diary (1928-1931)
 Dates:  1928 - 1931 
 Extent:  1 volume  
 Locations:  Chicago 
 Abstract:  In a diary that spans 1828-31, researchers receive an inside glimpse into Haas's early thinking about art, literature, dating and relationships, and even, to some degree, early-twentieth-century geopolitics. This diary ought to interest researchers interested in the arts, colonialism, psychology, and women's history. 
    
Haas opens her diary with an agenda to maintain a record of readings—and quotations pulled from those readings—as well as her own aspirations. In most entries, she responds to—and often argues with—arguments that she pulls from her diverse reading, which traverses Alcott, Balzac, Beowulf, the Bronte sisters, Dewey, Freud, Gorky, Hardy, Ibsen, Nietzsche, Thackeray, Tolstoy, and Voltaire.
 
For example, in one early entry, she takes Tolstoy to task, writing, "Some kinds of music may dull the mind, but I do not believe that all music dulls the mind. Besides, even music that dulls the mind has its place" (7/15/1928). Often, she uses those theories to rationalize her own artistic process: "Since I have studied psychology, I do not believe that artistic creation is a result of divine inspiration. My hypothesis is that these themes, which seem to be a result of divine inspiration, come in reality from my subconscious mind" (7/30/1928). Elsewhere, she advocates for limits of reason and value of emotions (e.g. 7/29/1928, 7/30/1928, and 11/25/1928).
 
While Haas largely abstains from discussing personal affairs in her correspondence, she includes several diary entries that chronicle her experiences with dating and romance (e.g. 12/2/1928 and 12/7/1930)
 
as one of her New Year's resolutions, she even adds the note: "Should not marry for at least three years" (12/1929). (Curiously, in that entry she also anticipates marrying three times.) Finally, although she mostly focuses on literature and music, Haas also includes several prescient notes on geopolitics, including the role of America in the world (e.g. 7/21/1928 and 8/2/1928) and the ebb of British colonialism (e.g. 8/7/1928).
 
Her diary concludes on 1/3/1931, with Haas enrolled at the University of Chicago, where, despite a full course roster, she plans a supplemental study regimen to guard against over-specialization: "I have planned a course of study for myself, which if carried out, will be more comprehensive than any university education could possibly be unless supplemented by wide reading."
 
    
In a diary that spans 1828-31, researchers receive an inside glimpse into Haas's early thinking about art, literature, dating and relationships, and even, to some degree, early-twentieth-century geopolitics. This diary ought to interest researchers interested in the arts, colonialism, psychology, and women's history.
 
Haas opens her diary with an agenda to maintain a record of readings—and quotations pulled from those readings—as well as her own aspirations. In most entries, she responds to—and often argues with—arguments that she pulls from her diverse reading, which traverses Alcott, Balzac, Beowulf, the Bronte sisters, Dewey, Freud, Gorky, Hardy, Ibsen, Nietzsche, Thackeray, Tolstoy, and Voltaire.
 
For example, in one early entry, she takes Tolstoy to task, writing, "Some kinds of music may dull the mind, but I do not believe that all music dulls the mind. Besides, even music that dulls the mind has its place" (7/15/1928). Often, she uses those theories to rationalize her own artistic process: "Since I have studied psychology, I do not believe that artistic creation is a result of divine inspiration. My hypothesis is that these themes, which seem to be a result of divine inspiration, come in reality from my subconscious mind" (7/30/1928). Elsewhere, she advocates for limits of reason and value of emotions (e.g. 7/29/1928, 7/30/1928, and 11/25/1928).
 
While Haas largely abstains from discussing personal affairs in her correspondence, she includes several diary entries that chronicle her experiences with dating and romance (e.g. 12/2/1928 and 12/7/1930)
 
as one of her New Year's resolutions, she even adds the note: "Should not marry for at least three years" (12/1929). (Curiously, in that entry she also anticipates marrying three times.) Finally, although she mostly focuses on literature and music, Haas also includes several prescient notes on geopolitics, including the role of America in the world (e.g. 7/21/1928 and 8/2/1928) and the ebb of British colonialism (e.g. 8/7/1928).
 
Her diary concludes on 1/3/1931, with Haas enrolled at the University of Chicago, where, despite a full course roster, she plans a supplemental study regimen to guard against over-specialization: "I have planned a course of study for myself, which if carried out, will be more comprehensive than any university education could possibly be unless supplemented by wide reading."
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  Selected Quotations
  • On America (in response to Ludwig quote "To youth belongs the world, and that is why it is now belongs to America"): "The American is a citizen of the world whom youth and favorable circumstances, effort and naivete, health, naturalness and humor have aided to a more pleasant existence than ours…What will happen when America is in her fourth act? Who will constitute the youthful nation then? Will it be such rejuvenating countries as Russia, China, and India, or will someone make another planet accessible, on which to start all over again?" (7/21/1928)

  • On Civilization: "When one stops to think about it, even the most civilized peoples are not far from being barbarians themselves. Let us look at our own country. There are hundreds of murders and rapes and like in the course of a single day…Thousands of people are getting drunk daily, or at least drinking, simply because by so doing they break federal law. In the business world, in the political world, in the so-called 'social' world, the spoils go to the victor regardless of any justice" (8/2/1928)

  • On Colonialism (in response to Thomas Hardy quotation): "The statement that Emancipation was the great question of the age is very interesting—but the most interesting point about it is that it is still the great question of this age…Look at Russia, India, China. Russia has finally freed herself from the domination of the aristocracy, but she is under a different domination that is scarcely any better. China is trying to free herself. Perhaps under the Nationalist regime she will be better off…India, at least a great part of India, wants to be free from the domination of the British. Even said Scotland is clamoring for Home Rule. Britain may wake up some day and find herself bereft of her many colonies" (8/7/1928)
 
 Subjects:  Art. | Colonialisms | Diaries. | Education. | Literature. | Music. | Psychology. | Science. | United States--Civilization--1918-1945. | United States--Politics and government. | University of Chicago. | Women--History. 
 Collection:  Mary Rosamond Haas papers, ca. 1910-1996  (Mss.Ms.Coll.94)  
  Go to the collection
 
3.Title:  Samuel Bayard Diary (1795-1796)
 Dates:  1795 - 1796 
 Extent:  1 volume  
 Locations:  Bath | Bristol | Canterbury | Doncaster | London | Oxford | Ramsgate | Reading | Richmond | Saint Albans | Stamford | York 
 Abstract:  Appointed by President Washington as American Commissioner of Claims to represent the United States in the British courts, Samuel Bayard appeared before the admiralty courts in London for four years, during which time he obtained more than ten million dollars in compensation for American interests. His journal, which accounts for the first half of his tenure (5/8/1795-12/31/1796), offers a window into international law at the turn of the nineteenth century, the French Revolution, the Panic of 1796-97, and the early national period in an international context. Alongside his work in international law, Bayard demonstrates a keen interest in the arts, especially literature, and at one point crosses paths with writer and collector William Henry Ireland. 
    
The Bayard journal offers a detailed record of the first half of his tenure as American Commissioner of Claims in London. In that capacity, Bayard writes regularly about his correspondence with Secretary of State Timothy Pickering (5/29/1795, 11/1/1795, 11/2/1795), meetings with Vice President John Adams (11/13/1795, 1/22/1796), and various news to the French Revolution (e.g. 5/29/1795 and 5/31/1795), the Jay Treaty (8/8/1795), and warning signs of what would become the Panic of 1796-97 (6/26/1795, 7/14/1795). Notably, his notes concerning the financial panic underscore the interconnectedness of national markets. "Alarm prevails - some bad news from India," writes Bayard. "A great scarcity of money - India stocks fall…American stocks have fallen also in consequence of the scarcity of cash & the late news from the U.S." (5/25/1796).
 
What researchers might find most surprising, however, is how much of this volume strays from international law and diplomacy into the eighteenth-century arts and sciences. Bayard records a gallery opening at the Royal Academy (5/25/1795), attends a Methodist meeting (6/28/1795), goes to theater (9/24/1796), and visits numerous coffee houses in London, Bath, Bristol, and Oxford. In his travels, he meets a number of significant figures in the arts and sciences. He writes about a meeting with writer and collector William Henry Ireland, who shows him "a copy of one Shakespeare's manuscripts" (9/16/1795). The next year, that "new play," Vortigern and Rowena, would later be discovered to be a forgery, the subject of significant controversy. Towards the end of his volume, he also notes an encounter with astronomer William Herschel, who shows him his 40-foot telescope behind his house (6/13/1796).
 
    
Appointed by President Washington as American Commissioner of Claims to represent the United States in the British courts, Samuel Bayard appeared before the admiralty courts in London for four years, during which time he obtained more than ten million dollars in compensation for American interests. His journal, which accounts for the first half of his tenure (5/8/1795-12/31/1796), offers a window into international law at the turn of the nineteenth century, the French Revolution, the Panic of 1796-97, and the early national period in an international context. Alongside his work in international law, Bayard demonstrates a keen interest in the arts, especially literature, and at one point crosses paths with writer and collector William Henry Ireland.
 
The Bayard journal offers a detailed record of the first half of his tenure as American Commissioner of Claims in London. In that capacity, Bayard writes regularly about his correspondence with Secretary of State Timothy Pickering (5/29/1795, 11/1/1795, 11/2/1795), meetings with Vice President John Adams (11/13/1795, 1/22/1796), and various news to the French Revolution (e.g. 5/29/1795 and 5/31/1795), the Jay Treaty (8/8/1795), and warning signs of what would become the Panic of 1796-97 (6/26/1795, 7/14/1795). Notably, his notes concerning the financial panic underscore the interconnectedness of national markets. "Alarm prevails - some bad news from India," writes Bayard. "A great scarcity of money - India stocks fall…American stocks have fallen also in consequence of the scarcity of cash & the late news from the U.S." (5/25/1796).
 
What researchers might find most surprising, however, is how much of this volume strays from international law and diplomacy into the eighteenth-century arts and sciences. Bayard records a gallery opening at the Royal Academy (5/25/1795), attends a Methodist meeting (6/28/1795), goes to theater (9/24/1796), and visits numerous coffee houses in London, Bath, Bristol, and Oxford. In his travels, he meets a number of significant figures in the arts and sciences. He writes about a meeting with writer and collector William Henry Ireland, who shows him "a copy of one Shakespeare's manuscripts" (9/16/1795). The next year, that "new play," Vortigern and Rowena, would later be discovered to be a forgery, the subject of significant controversy. Towards the end of his volume, he also notes an encounter with astronomer William Herschel, who shows him his 40-foot telescope behind his house (6/13/1796).
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  Selected Quotations
  • "Mr. Ireland…has lately been presented with a copy of one Shakespeare's manuscripts--I was much interested with the sight of the new play Vortigern in the author's own hand writing--his King Lear--which is materially different in several parts from the editions extant" (9/16/1795)

  • "Met Mr. Pickering at his house with Mr. Adams - we convers'd on business… [and] on other topics of business" (1/22/1796)

  • "Call'd on Sir W. Scott--had a long conversation with him on the subjects of the appeals--stated our reliance on his influence & his talents & how much it was in his power to conciliate the 2 countries Am. & G.B with each other--he professes to be well dispos'd this way but complained of his being sometimes exposed to contrary responsibilities" (4/18/1796)
 
 Subjects:  Adams, John, 1735-1826. | Americans Abroad | Astronomy--Observations. | Colonialisms | Diaries. | Diplomacy. | France--History--Revolution, 1789-1799. | Great Britain--Social life and customs--18th century. | Herschel, William, 1738-1822. | International law. | Ireland, William Henry, 1777-1835 | Literature. | Methodism. | Pickering, Timothy, 1745-1829. | Religion. | Science. | Travel. | United States--History--Revolution, 1775-1783. 
 Collection:  Samuel Bayard Papers  (Mss.SMs.Coll.6)  
  Go to the collection
 
4.Title:  John Louis Haney Diaries (1887-1959)
 Dates:  1887 - 1959 
 Extent:  33 volumes  
 Locations:  Albany | Allenhurst | Allentown | Amsterdam | Andermatt | Antwerp | Ardmore | Asbury Park | Atlantic City | Baltimore | Bangor | Bar Harbor | Basel | Bellagio | Berlin | Bonn | Boston | Boulder | Braunschweig | Bremen | Brienz | Brunswick | Brussels | Bryn Mawr | Buffalo | Burlington | Cambridge | Cape May | Charlotte | Chestertown | Chicago | Cleveland | Cologne | Colorado Springs | Como | Darby | Denver | Detroit | Dieppe | Doylestown | Dresden | Easton | Eisenach | Ephrata | Falmouth | Frankfurt | Geneva | Germantown | Glenwood Springs | Goschenen | Gotha | Gottingen | Grimsel Pass | Grindelwald | Halberstadt | Hannover | Harrisonburg | Hartford | Henley-on-Thames | Hildesheim | Innsbruck | Interlochen | Ithaca | Kassel | Koblenz | Konstanz | Lancaster | Lausanne | Lauterbrunnen | Leipzig | Lindau | London | Lucerne | Lugano | Martigny | Meiringen | Milan | Montreal | Montreux | Mount Gretna | Munich | Nantucket | Natural Bridge | New Haven | New York | Nuremberg | Ottawa | Ouray | Oxford | Paris | Peak's Island | Philadelphia | Pittsburgh | Plymouth | Point Pleasant | Portland, Maine | Princeton | Providence | Regensburg | Rheinsberg | Rockland | Rotterdam | Rouen | Saint Louis | Salisbury | Schaffhausen | Sea Isle City | Seaside Park | Springfield | Strasbourg | Stratford | Stuttgart | Swarthmore | Syracuse | The Hague | Toronto | Trenton | Turka | Utrecht | Valley Forge | Venice | Verona | Vitznau | Washington D.C. | Weimar | Wilmington | Worcester | Zurich 
 Abstract:  John Louis Haney papers contain 33 volumes that Haney maintained from the age of 10 until a year before his death (1887-1959). The first twelve volumes are devoted to his educations (including Sunday School, German School, and the University of Pennsylvania), whereas subsequent volumes trace his career as professor of English (1900-1920) and president of Philadelphia's Central High School (1920-1943), during which Haney published numerous books on Coleridge and Shakespeare. These volumes may interest a host of different scholars—certainly those exploring twentieth-century education and the field of literary criticism—but well as those researching the Great Depression, the 1933 World's Fair, twentieth century U.S. politics (particularly for conservative critique of F.D.R.), the institutional history of the American Philosophical Society (in which Haney was elected a member in 1929), and the history of the Spanish-American War, World War I, and World War II. Researchers may also choose to mine this collection for its rich ephemera, including self-portraits interspersed in diaries (e.g. 1898, 1904-6, 1910-13, 1918-22), as well as an ancillary book of newspaper clippings, a folder of other ephemera, and two volumes of his personal reading lists. 
    
Researchers interested in Haney's biography will find that these volumes meticulously document his education, literary interests, and career. Volumes from the 1890s capture his voracious reading habits. For example, in August 1895, he reads and comments upon Charles Darwin's Descent of Man (8/11) and the Bible (8/18) in the same week. Throughout his journals, Haney provides a useful homespun index at the end of each journal. Beginning in 1898, he adds annual reviews in which he takes stock of his progress. (Those reviews become so exhaustive that, by 1907, he begins adding subcategories of assessment, such as "My Relation to the World At Large," "Literary Work," "Travel," "People Whom I Met," "Drama & Music," "Reading," "Financial," "Family Affairs"). Scholars interested in Philadelphia regional history will note that these early volumes recount Haney frequent visits to book dealer A.S.W. Rosenbach, during which the two discuss books and university affairs (e.g. 6/10/1896, 8/17/1899).
 
Haney's professional career begins in earnest in 1900, when he accepts his position at Central High School. While he acknowledges the significance of the offer at the time (6/29/1900), Haney reflects at greater length in a later entry (9/4/1935). In that year's annual review, he summarizes his progress: "I am inclined to regard 1900 as the most significant year thus far…the development of the bibliography, our experience at Washington and New York
 
the completion of my first novel
 
the work on my thesis
 
my appointment at the High School--truly a diversified array of interests." While Haney's bibliography of Coleridge wouldn't be published for some time (he celebrates receipt of his copy on 9/1/1903), the next twenty years bring significant milestones in his career: Haney becomes department chair (1905 review) and, after a "strenuous campaign," is elected president of Central High School (1920 review).
 
Alongside his literary interests, Haney proves a studious observer of contemporary economics and world affairs. Although he evinces sympathies for laissez-faire capitalism (reference an excerpt from the 1926 annual review), Haney records labor strikes from the 1890s (12/17-18/1895 and 1/3/1896), Black Tuesday (10/29/29, 1929 annual review), and the lived experience of the Great Depression (1930-34 annual reviews). Haney also visits the Chicago World's Fair (1933 review) and discusses the Blizzard of 1899 (2/10/1899), Charles Lindbergh's transatlantic flight (5/21/1927), the discovery of Pluto (1930 review), Hughes' flight around the world (1938 review), and Russia's launch of a satellite, which he calls a "catastrophe for the West" (1957 review).
 
Haney also demonstrates a sustained interest in domestic (Republican) politics. After the McKinley assassination, he recounts reports of news over almost two weeks (9/7-9/19/1901). He reports considerable excitement concerning President Roosevelt's visit to CHS (11/12/1902), and celebrates the electoral gains of our "virile president" (11/9/1904). (Haney thinks less highly of President Wilson.) He records ratification of women's suffrage (1920 annual review), repeal of 18th Amendment, and passage of the 20th and 21st Amendments (1933 review). A tireless critic of F.D.R., Haney bemoans his election (11/8-9/1932) and reelections (1936 review, 11/6/1940, 11/8/1944), needling his "imprudent Supreme Court Packing idea" (1937 review) and fretting that, "A new American Gestapo set up in Washington is ready to hound any citizen who criticizes the Government" (1944 review). In fact, Haney's critiques of F.D.R. offer a window into conservative backlash against the New Deal, as excerpted in Selected Quotations (1935 review). In one of his final journals, he also notes the emergence of new racial coalitions associated with the Civil Rights era, writing, "The Negroes, once grateful to the G.O.P. for bringing about their liberation in the South, have turned their backs on the Republicans and cheerfully vote for politicians who given them untold millions in 'relief' of every sort" (1957 review).
 
Finally, war historians will discover countless accounts of U.S. military activity between the Spanish-American War and World War II. Haney celebrates the destruction of Pascual Cervera y Topete's naval fleet (7/4/1898), and notes with increasing alarm the "gathering war clouds in Europe" (7/30/1914, 1914 annual review). In his next annual review, he mourns Western civilization: "The year 1915 has probably been the most discreditable year since the dawn of civilization-discreditable to civilization and to all that such a state of existence implies. The Great European War, begun about August 1st of the previous year, ran a full twelve-month of slaughter during 1915 with no end in sight…The good name of Germany and of the Teutonic culture has been thrown to the winds. The future of the world's peace demands the defeat of the power that stands for militarism and for brute force" (1915 review). Haney marks Armistice Day as "one of the remarkable days of my life" (11/11/1918), but he soon finds himself profoundly disappointed with reconstruction efforts, as excerpted in Selected Quotations (1920 annual review). Haney's 1920s and 1930s entries offer a sobering account of the failures of League of Nations and the rise of Hitler and Mussolini. His volumes record milestones of World War II, from the attack on Pearl Harbor (12/7/1941) to the bombing of Hiroshima (8/6-7/1941). "It was epochal," writes Haney. "Papers & radio features the devastating atomic bomb. A new age has begun" (8/7/1941).
 
    
John Louis Haney papers contain 33 volumes that Haney maintained from the age of 10 until a year before his death (1887-1959). The first twelve volumes are devoted to his educations (including Sunday School, German School, and the University of Pennsylvania), whereas subsequent volumes trace his career as professor of English (1900-1920) and president of Philadelphia's Central High School (1920-1943), during which Haney published numerous books on Coleridge and Shakespeare. These volumes may interest a host of different scholars—certainly those exploring twentieth-century education and the field of literary criticism—but well as those researching the Great Depression, the 1933 World's Fair, twentieth century U.S. politics (particularly for conservative critique of F.D.R.), the institutional history of the American Philosophical Society (in which Haney was elected a member in 1929), and the history of the Spanish-American War, World War I, and World War II. Researchers may also choose to mine this collection for its rich ephemera, including self-portraits interspersed in diaries (e.g. 1898, 1904-6, 1910-13, 1918-22), as well as an ancillary book of newspaper clippings, a folder of other ephemera, and two volumes of his personal reading lists.
 
Researchers interested in Haney's biography will find that these volumes meticulously document his education, literary interests, and career. Volumes from the 1890s capture his voracious reading habits. For example, in August 1895, he reads and comments upon Charles Darwin's Descent of Man (8/11) and the Bible (8/18) in the same week. Throughout his journals, Haney provides a useful homespun index at the end of each journal. Beginning in 1898, he adds annual reviews in which he takes stock of his progress. (Those reviews become so exhaustive that, by 1907, he begins adding subcategories of assessment, such as "My Relation to the World At Large," "Literary Work," "Travel," "People Whom I Met," "Drama & Music," "Reading," "Financial," "Family Affairs"). Scholars interested in Philadelphia regional history will note that these early volumes recount Haney frequent visits to book dealer A.S.W. Rosenbach, during which the two discuss books and university affairs (e.g. 6/10/1896, 8/17/1899).
 
Haney's professional career begins in earnest in 1900, when he accepts his position at Central High School. While he acknowledges the significance of the offer at the time (6/29/1900), Haney reflects at greater length in a later entry (9/4/1935). In that year's annual review, he summarizes his progress: "I am inclined to regard 1900 as the most significant year thus far…the development of the bibliography, our experience at Washington and New York
 
the completion of my first novel
 
the work on my thesis
 
my appointment at the High School--truly a diversified array of interests." While Haney's bibliography of Coleridge wouldn't be published for some time (he celebrates receipt of his copy on 9/1/1903), the next twenty years bring significant milestones in his career: Haney becomes department chair (1905 review) and, after a "strenuous campaign," is elected president of Central High School (1920 review).
 
Alongside his literary interests, Haney proves a studious observer of contemporary economics and world affairs. Although he evinces sympathies for laissez-faire capitalism (reference an excerpt from the 1926 annual review), Haney records labor strikes from the 1890s (12/17-18/1895 and 1/3/1896), Black Tuesday (10/29/29, 1929 annual review), and the lived experience of the Great Depression (1930-34 annual reviews). Haney also visits the Chicago World's Fair (1933 review) and discusses the Blizzard of 1899 (2/10/1899), Charles Lindbergh's transatlantic flight (5/21/1927), the discovery of Pluto (1930 review), Hughes' flight around the world (1938 review), and Russia's launch of a satellite, which he calls a "catastrophe for the West" (1957 review).
 
Haney also demonstrates a sustained interest in domestic (Republican) politics. After the McKinley assassination, he recounts reports of news over almost two weeks (9/7-9/19/1901). He reports considerable excitement concerning President Roosevelt's visit to CHS (11/12/1902), and celebrates the electoral gains of our "virile president" (11/9/1904). (Haney thinks less highly of President Wilson.) He records ratification of women's suffrage (1920 annual review), repeal of 18th Amendment, and passage of the 20th and 21st Amendments (1933 review). A tireless critic of F.D.R., Haney bemoans his election (11/8-9/1932) and reelections (1936 review, 11/6/1940, 11/8/1944), needling his "imprudent Supreme Court Packing idea" (1937 review) and fretting that, "A new American Gestapo set up in Washington is ready to hound any citizen who criticizes the Government" (1944 review). In fact, Haney's critiques of F.D.R. offer a window into conservative backlash against the New Deal, as excerpted in Selected Quotations (1935 review). In one of his final journals, he also notes the emergence of new racial coalitions associated with the Civil Rights era, writing, "The Negroes, once grateful to the G.O.P. for bringing about their liberation in the South, have turned their backs on the Republicans and cheerfully vote for politicians who given them untold millions in 'relief' of every sort" (1957 review).
 
Finally, war historians will discover countless accounts of U.S. military activity between the Spanish-American War and World War II. Haney celebrates the destruction of Pascual Cervera y Topete's naval fleet (7/4/1898), and notes with increasing alarm the "gathering war clouds in Europe" (7/30/1914, 1914 annual review). In his next annual review, he mourns Western civilization: "The year 1915 has probably been the most discreditable year since the dawn of civilization-discreditable to civilization and to all that such a state of existence implies. The Great European War, begun about August 1st of the previous year, ran a full twelve-month of slaughter during 1915 with no end in sight…The good name of Germany and of the Teutonic culture has been thrown to the winds. The future of the world's peace demands the defeat of the power that stands for militarism and for brute force" (1915 review). Haney marks Armistice Day as "one of the remarkable days of my life" (11/11/1918), but he soon finds himself profoundly disappointed with reconstruction efforts, as excerpted in Selected Quotations (1920 annual review). Haney's 1920s and 1930s entries offer a sobering account of the failures of League of Nations and the rise of Hitler and Mussolini. His volumes record milestones of World War II, from the attack on Pearl Harbor (12/7/1941) to the bombing of Hiroshima (8/6-7/1941). "It was epochal," writes Haney. "Papers & radio features the devastating atomic bomb. A new age has begun" (8/7/1941).
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  Selected Quotations
  • "A year ago I recorded that 1919 was a disappointing year. In some respects, 1920 was still more disappointing. We are still in a state of war with Germany, the League of Nations seems to be destined for the scrapheap. Woodrow Wilson is still a very sick man, the Bolsheviks still reign in Moscow, Germany is still whining and trying to evade the terms of the Versailles Treaty, France and England are growing jealous and distrustful of each other, the Irish have had their fill of assassination and contemptable [outlaws], and America has gone through a full twelve-month of declining financial values & business slump…" (1920 review)

  • "It was a year of continued general prosperity and the highest standard of living ever attained by humanity. Such an abundance of wealth and widespread participation in the comforts and luxuries of civilization would have staggered the imagination. The hard-working man of today accepts as his right the conveniences that were the prerogative of the millionaire not so long ago" (1926 review)

  • "Conservatives of both parties noted with rejoicing satisfaction the waning popularity of Pres. Roosevelt, the temperamental playboy of Washington who philandered too long with the fair coquette Miss Socialism" (1935 review)

  • "A year ago I recorded that 1942 was possibly the most destructive year in human history. 1943 was still more so and on an incredible scale of loss for all of the human race and everything that civilization stands for" (1943 review)
 
 Subjects:  Air travel | Atomic history and culture | Blizzards. | Booksellers and bookselling. | Central High School (Philadelphia, Pa.) | Cold War. | Diaries. | Education. | Europe. | Labor--History. | Literature. | Republican Party (U.S. : 1854- ) | Rosenbach Museum & Library | Science. | Space flight. | Spanish-American War, 1898. | Travel. | United States--Civilization--1918-1945. | United States--Civilization--1945- | United States--Politics and government. | Weather. | World War I. | World War II. 
 Collection:  John Louis Haney papers  (Mss.B.H196)  
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