MSS 0097. Diaries, Journals, & Ships' Logs

This volume contains an extensive history of the Martin family of Chester County and Delaware County, Pennsylvania, created by John Hill Martin. Martin created the history during the 1870s-1890s, but included materials from both the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.

In these two journal volumes, Henry C. Pratt recorded his travels through southeastern Pennsylvania and New Jersey in 1825 and his voyages as Surgeon’s Mate in the United States Navy between 1826 and 1828.

In this diary, Walter Samuel Carpenter chronicled his life in Valparaíso, Chile, while working for the DuPont Company from 1909 to 1910.

This medical journal was kept by Dr. Francis Daniels Edgerton for the Connecticut Industrial School for Girls and documents his diagnosis and treatment of the students' medical conditions from 1875 to 1883.

This small notebook contains brief, sporadic notes taken by Newark, Delaware, resident Mary J. Evans from 1904 to 1906. The entries document monetary transactions, home life, and events in the community over the two-year period.

Journal kept by the passenger John Clarke aboard the ship Governor Morton documenting the trip from New York to San Francisco between March 12, 1852 and December 20, 1852.

This typed transcript of a diary kept by Delaware College student Joseph Cleaver for the period 1853-1854 describes student life at the college, the curriculum, and Cleaver’s involvement in the Athenaean Literary Society.

Personal journal kept by Captain Arthur Darley of the British Royal Navy aboard the HMS Electra describing his travels throughout Bermuda, the West Indies, Jamaica, Honduras, Colombia, Havana, Belize, and Galveston, Texas, from January 1, 1842 through February 3, 1843.

Ship's log kept by George Dodds [Dods] aboard the snow Susana documenting the voyage from Newport, Rhode Island, to Havana, Cuba, from December 21, 1799, to March 20, 1800.

The journal is a personal narrative of James S. Doran, who served in the capacity of engineer on several steamships, including theMerrimack, the Thomas Kelso, the San Pelago, and the City of Mexico from May 17, 1866 through April 25, 1872.

This journal belonged to P. B. Durfee and chronicles two trips from Providence, Rhode Island, to Memphis, Tennessee, where he worked as a clerk during the 1860s.

This mid-nineteenth century autograph album belonged to Mary F. Armstrong of Newark, Delaware, and contains original or transcribed poems about friendship signed by her female friends. Many of the contributors are from Delaware.

The Joseph Hoare Beale journals, 1796-1848, consist of nine volumes kept by a world traveler of the late eighteenth to late nineteenth-centuries. Beale, who may have been of Irish origin and served as secretary to Lord Thomas Pitt in Ceylon before traveling to America, recorded weather observations, activities, and expenses in the five "daily weather diaries." He also produced a holograph of Sir Thomas Moore's "Sacred Melodies."

These three bound diaries were kept by Delaware resident Jeannie Groome Black during her travels in Europe with a group of ten Delawareans from October 13, 1890, to November 25, 1891.

This single bound volume was compiled by Dr. Samuel Henry Black between 1810 and 1844, containing transcribed quotations, prose, and poetry; agricultural memorandums (1815); and an open letter in which he declined to run for the Delaware General Assembly (1821).

Fictionalized journal of Charles Boss describing his frontier life and encounters with Indians while serving in the United States Army from 1866 to 1884.

This diary was kept by soldier Edward E. Brown of Company B, 35th Infantry Regiment, U.S. Army, during the Philippine-American war, for the period 1899-1901.

This bound volume is a typed transcript of a log for the bark Rambler kept by Daniel A. Chappell, the ship's cooper. It documents a Pacific-bound whaling voyage out of New Bedford, Massachusetts, for the period 1852-1855.

John C. Giles's journal contains a detailed account of his daily activities on a grand tour of Europe taken with his wife and daughter from June 3 to November 24, 1868. Giles described landmarks, churches, museums, plays, concerts, weather, hotels, transportation, shopping, dining, correspondence, people met, and social activities.

Journal kept by Henry A. Harding aboard the ship Otago documenting voyages from Port Blakely, Washington Territory, to Noumea, New Caledonia, with stops at Newcastle, Australia, and Honolulu, Hawaii, between April 18th, 1879 and December 11, 1882.

Margaret Hazlitt's "Recollections" of her father Reverend William Hazlitt (1737-1820), and her brothers essayist and critic William Hazlitt (1778-1830) and artist John Hazlitt (1767-1837) cover the period 1737 to approximately 1812. The diary is of interest for its account of the origins and history of the Hazlitt family and its detailed description of the visit of the Reverend William Hazlitt and his family to North America from 1783 to 1787.

This typed transcript of a journal chronicles Platteville, Wisconsin, resident John Grindell's 1850 overland journey west during the California Gold Rush.

Ship's log for the ship Herald documenting two whaling voyages out of Stonington, Connecticut, between September 12, 1843, and August 10, 1845.