FORTY-ONE DIARIES

Finding Aid

Size: 2.0 linear feet

Literary rights:
Literary rights were not granted to Wichita State University. When permission is granted to examine the manuscripts, it is not an authorization to publish them. Manuscripts cannot be used for publication without regard for common law literary rights, copyright laws and the laws of libel. It is the responsibility of the researcher and his/her publisher to obtain permission to publish. Scholars and students who eventually plan to have their work published are urged to make inquiry regarding overall restrictions on publication before initial research.

Restrictions: None

Content note:
The collection includes forty-one diaries written from 1876 to 1916, inclusive. The identity of the writer is unknown, however believed to have been a single woman who remained in the family home and cared for her parents, then inherited same farm land from which her income was derived. The town in which she lived is not revealed, but it was in southwestern New York, probably near Chautauqua. Other towns mentioned in the diaries include Dunkirk, Fredonia, Silver Creek, Ellington, Cherry Creek, Buffalo, and South Dayton. Daily chores, social and church activities and weather data are described in the daily entries. In forty-one years of diary writing, there is no mention of an extended trip or vacation, and almost no references to events of national or international significance. The chief value of this collection is found in the economics of the years from 1876 to 1916, the prices of grains, fruits, garden and dairy products. The diaries portray the narrow dimensions of one woman's life in the forty years preceding and extending into World War I.

Acquisition: Purchased in December 1992 from Cohasco, Inc.

Processed by: AG, 1993; JEF, 11-12-1998