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

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

A prominent lawyer and signer of the Declaration of Independence and Constitution, James Wilson also kept a brief journal that records his work, travels, and some other surprising data. Recorded in a "Aitken's General American Register" dated 1773, this journal includes entries dated 1774, and 1782-1786. Entries appear in two different hands, and record receipts, expenses, and activities, the last probably not Wilson's. The second hand of the almanac has been dated to a later period, believed to be from 1782-1786, and it records in graphic detail the sexual exploits of its author.
 

The Ernst P. Boas Papers contain one diary, dated 1907. Ernst Boas, son of the anthropologist Franz Boas, maintained this diary while in school. As such, it provides a glimpse into his high school and college education, family life, recreational activities. Notably, it includes several notes concerning the travels of his father (e.g. 4/17/1907) and his contraction of pneumonia (4/29-5/6/1907). Recorded at the age of 16, this volume may interest scholars researching Ernst Boas during formative years at Ethical Culture School.
 

This diary records the individuals and sights that he saw while in England. There are many observations of life in London, e.g. parks, buildings, paintings, food. Outside of London he visited many towns, including Manchester and its cotton mills as well as the steel mills of Birmingham. He relates his visit to Drury Lane and the dramatic performance of Sarah Siddons. Some of the people he met included Sir Joseph Banks, Sir Charles Blagden, Matthew Boulton, Joseph Priestley, William Pitt the Younger, and Benjamin Vaughan. He also visited and described the gardens at Kew. The diary includes several sketches, including the plan of Blenheim Palace, and also a table of distances traveled. This item is written in the hand of Jean-Francois Wiart.
 

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

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

Albert Dabadie Bache maintained several diaries that ought to interest scholars investigating the Civil War, naval history, and Asia--especially China and Japan--in the nineteenth century. The first volume recount his tenure as captain's clerk aboard the U.S.S. Hartford in 1862 (1/1-11/28). Bache provides an on-the-ground view of the Civil War that traverses the American North and South. The first half of the journal documents his life at camps in the South, including Baton Rouge, Cape Hatteras, New Orleans, and Vicksburg, and, starting in late-September, he returns to the northeast, first to New York and then to Philadelphia. In addition to providing a glimpse at soldier camps—especially in Baton Rouge (8/8)—Bache records at least one instance of Yellow Fever.; The latter two diaries (from 1867 and 1868 respectively), document his service as assistant paymaster on the U.S.S. Iroquois, of the Asiatic Squadron. After leaving from the Brooklyn Navy Yard (2/1/1867), Bache immediately confronts a hurricane (2/11/1867). Bache had an opportunity to take numerous shore leaves across Brazil, South Africa, Madagascar, Oman, Singapore, China, Japan, and the Philippines: he visits Rio de Janeiro during Holy Week (April 1867), offers extended descriptions of Saint Augustin that spills across multiple entries (7/9-7/22/1867), and attends a Chinese opera in Singapore (10/10/1763). His 1868 journal continues to narrate his travels in Asia, most especially Japan. Bache makes good use of this volume's larger pages, recording extended accounts of the cities Hakodate, Hyogo, Nagasaki, Niigata, Osaka, and Yokohama. After spending most of the year traveling Japan's coast--he doesn't leave for China until 11/16/1868--he closes his volume with a brief visit to the Philippines.
 

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).

The Herbert Spencer Jennings Papers contain at least 17 volumes of diaries and various other workbooks, notebooks, and commonplace books with which researchers may supplement those volumes. Although the volumes span 1903-1945, Jennings maintains them most regularly between 1924-1945, providing detailed insights into his research, teaching, professional networks, writing and publications in the fields of microbiology, genetics, and, to a lesser degree, eugenics. For a short period (1924-27) he maintains some entries in shorthand, but returns to a long form thereafter. Integrated throughout his entries are occasional pieces of ephemera, including notes from students (e.g. 4/8/1929), business cards (11/4/1931), newspaper clippings (7/31/1933), and even the passport photos for he and his wife, Mary Louise Spencer (6/27/1935). Researchers interested in his biography, may choose to begin their research using the volume dated 3/11/1938, which contains entries as late as 1/1/1945. That volume encompasses his retirement from Johns Hopkins University (1938), the death of his first wife, Mary (also in 1938), and his remarriage to Lulu Plant Jennings (1939). Jennings' extended trips abroad, including Italy (1903-4), Japan (1931-33), and England (1933-36), may interest scholars researching twentieth-century Europe. Notably, he maintained separate notebooks with further records and ephemera related to both of the latter trips, including two notebooks related to Japanese language and two large scrapbooks related to his time at Oxford. Finally, scholars specifically interested in his career may take an interest in his sporadic notes concerning eugenics (e.g. 1/27/1933) and Charles Davenport, who also maintained an extensive set of diaries available at the APS (Mss.B.D27). For example, nested inside the diary dated 10/12/1928-7/10/1929, Jennings encloses a note addressed to a Mrs. Lutz (5/31/1929), in which he congratulates her on the twenty-fifth anniversary of an institute, which is almost certainly Davenport's Carnegie Institute (opened 6/11/1904).
 

Researchers will likely gravitate to Strahan's first volume, a detailed, six-week account of European travels taken in 1751 (7/6-8/28). Alongside accounts of weather, road and travel conditions, and various social gatherings (e.g. breakfasts, dinners, teas), Strahan's entries offer glimpses into eighteenth-century English conduct, church services, universities, courts, libraries, as well as villages, towns, and cities and their inhabitants. For example, Straham describes Newcastle as a "a place of Business and Industry equal to London" (7/15) and Paisley as a "perfect hive of industrious people" (8/6). Attending a trial, he remarks upon the conduct of the participants, writing, "The court was very solemn and the lawyers were both elegant and behaved with remarkable decency" (7/22). Strahan even visits a poorhouse in Edinburgh, by which, he remarks, "the City is not only freed of all beggars, but the offspring of such are [tirelessly] snatched from Destruction, so that the Race of disorderly people are hereby extinguished" (7/30).
 
The second (1759, 1760, 1766), third (1768, 1773, 1777), and fourth volumes (1755-1761) are much less detailed but sketch his travel (and distances covered). The fourth volume, in particular, more closely resembles an account book than a journal. As he takes stock of his properties, assets, and debts, Straham records his increasingly wealth—from £ 5,000 in total assets in 1755 to £ 12,000 in 1761.

The William Strahan diary encompasses four volumes spanning 1751-1777. The first volume features the most detailed entries, whereas the second and third volumes include shorter accounts of multiple excursions and the fourth volume serves less as a journal than a summation of accounts, debts, and holdings. The first volume's accounts of mid-eighteenth-century England ought to interest researchers interested in English urban space, governance, and social conduct.
 
Researchers will likely gravitate to Strahan's first volume, a detailed, six-week account of European travels taken in 1751 (7/6-8/28). Alongside accounts of weather, road and travel conditions, and various social gatherings (e.g. breakfasts, dinners, teas), Strahan's entries offer glimpses into eighteenth-century English conduct, church services, universities, courts, libraries, as well as villages, towns, and cities and their inhabitants. For example, Straham describes Newcastle as a "a place of Business and Industry equal to London" (7/15) and Paisley as a "perfect hive of industrious people" (8/6). Attending a trial, he remarks upon the conduct of the participants, writing, "The court was very solemn and the lawyers were both elegant and behaved with remarkable decency" (7/22). Strahan even visits a poorhouse in Edinburgh, by which, he remarks, "the City is not only freed of all beggars, but the offspring of such are [tirelessly] snatched from Destruction, so that the Race of disorderly people are hereby extinguished" (7/30).
 
The second (1759, 1760, 1766), third (1768, 1773, 1777), and fourth volumes (1755-1761) are much less detailed but sketch his travel (and distances covered). The fourth volume, in particular, more closely resembles an account book than a journal. As he takes stock of his properties, assets, and debts, Straham records his increasingly wealth—from £ 5,000 in total assets in 1755 to £ 12,000 in 1761.

The Heiser diaries are without peer when it comes to their scope--spanning the first seven decades of the twentieth-century--global reach, and detail. Scholars exploring the history of medicine might gravitate towards entries related to his public health work in the Philippines (1908-1916). Researchers interested in the history of zionism will be richly rewarded by volumes from 1922 and 1926--an excerpt from Heiser's July 1922 journey to Palestine is excerpted in Selected Quotations. And those interested in colonial India will discover a numerous reflections on Gandhi and 1920s non-violent resistance movements (also excerpted in Selected Quotations).
 
Perhaps most surprising are Heiser's detailed accounts of European travel between the 1920s and 1930s, during which he expresses some sympathy for nationalist movements. Traveling war-torn Italy, he remarked on there "appears to be unanimous agreement among natives and foreigners" that the new prime minister, Benito Mussolini, "has accomplished extraordinary results and that he is honest and genuinely patriotic" (11/19/1923). Several years later, he documents the nation's progress in developing infrastructure and improving services. He concludes his 4/29/1926 entry with an ominous justification for fascism: "Democracy gradually became so inefficient that all came to a standstill and a dictator was able to start the machinery on an effective basis."
 
Heiser traveled widely during the decade preceding World War II. In the late-1930s, he returned to Italy and decries the ubiquitous military presence, government propaganda, and oppressive taxation. And yet, he ends his entry with a section entitled "The Other Side." Heiser writes: "A whole new social order has been created. Instead of people finding fault with what government fails in, the press and government propaganda constantly drive into their ears what government is doing for the people. (In the end will this not produce more peace of mind and happiness than our democratic way of emphasizing fault-finding)" (4/25/1937).
 
On the topic of promoting public happiness, Heiser draws a similar conclusion during a contemporaneous visit to Germany. While he decries the Nazi government's "censorship, prohibitions and [intrusion into] one's private affairs," he adds: "And yet one begins to wonder whether there is not much to be said in favor of the good type of dictatorships, in promoting human happiness. In democracies people are [annoyed] to say or think little of the good things government does for them and to place main emphasis upon petty fault finding" (6/3/1937). Finally, just one year prior to the outbreak of World War II, Heiser pens perhaps his most generous account of dictatorships. That account, "Further Impressions Dictatorships," is excerpted in Selected Quotations.

By any measure, public health leader Victor George Heiser lived a long, productive, and vigorous life. His 86 diaries (1890-1972) predate the Spanish-American War and post-date U.S. escalation in Vietnam, while his career in public health put him in contact with politicians, diplomats, ambassadors, and government officials across the globe. An astute political observer, Heiser offers rich, on-the-ground insights into twentieth-century history as it unfolded, from the rise of Gandhi to the fall of Hitler. His 1920s and 1930s entries also offer candid explanations of and justifications for dictatorship. The Heiser diaries may interest a wide range of scholars, including those researching the history of science, American public health policy in the Philippines, the history of Zionism and Israeli statehood, colonialism in Asia (most especially India), and Europe between World War I and World War II.
 
The Heiser diaries are without peer when it comes to their scope--spanning the first seven decades of the twentieth-century--global reach, and detail. Scholars exploring the history of medicine might gravitate towards entries related to his public health work in the Philippines (1908-1916). Researchers interested in the history of zionism will be richly rewarded by volumes from 1922 and 1926--an excerpt from Heiser's July 1922 journey to Palestine is excerpted in Selected Quotations. And those interested in colonial India will discover a numerous reflections on Gandhi and 1920s non-violent resistance movements (also excerpted in Selected Quotations).
 
Perhaps most surprising are Heiser's detailed accounts of European travel between the 1920s and 1930s, during which he expresses some sympathy for nationalist movements. Traveling war-torn Italy, he remarked on there "appears to be unanimous agreement among natives and foreigners" that the new prime minister, Benito Mussolini, "has accomplished extraordinary results and that he is honest and genuinely patriotic" (11/19/1923). Several years later, he documents the nation's progress in developing infrastructure and improving services. He concludes his 4/29/1926 entry with an ominous justification for fascism: "Democracy gradually became so inefficient that all came to a standstill and a dictator was able to start the machinery on an effective basis."
 
Heiser traveled widely during the decade preceding World War II. In the late-1930s, he returned to Italy and decries the ubiquitous military presence, government propaganda, and oppressive taxation. And yet, he ends his entry with a section entitled "The Other Side." Heiser writes: "A whole new social order has been created. Instead of people finding fault with what government fails in, the press and government propaganda constantly drive into their ears what government is doing for the people. (In the end will this not produce more peace of mind and happiness than our democratic way of emphasizing fault-finding)" (4/25/1937).
 
On the topic of promoting public happiness, Heiser draws a similar conclusion during a contemporaneous visit to Germany. While he decries the Nazi government's "censorship, prohibitions and [intrusion into] one's private affairs," he adds: "And yet one begins to wonder whether there is not much to be said in favor of the good type of dictatorships, in promoting human happiness. In democracies people are [annoyed] to say or think little of the good things government does for them and to place main emphasis upon petty fault finding" (6/3/1937). Finally, just one year prior to the outbreak of World War II, Heiser pens perhaps his most generous account of dictatorships. That account, "Further Impressions Dictatorships," is excerpted in Selected Quotations.

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).