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This collection is made up of personal letters to Elizabeth Hollister Lyons, whose friends and family members discussed their lives in Connecticut and Illinois. Some correspondents taught school and others commented on topics such as sewing, religion, and health.

This collection (182 items) is primarily made up of personal letters to Elizabeth Hollister Lyons, whose friends and family members discussed their lives in Connecticut and Illinois. Her correspondents included her sisters Artemisia (18 items, 1851-1902), Clara (20 items, 1852-1862), Emily (6 letters, 1853-1856), and Sarah (27 items, 1847-1871); her brother Lee and his wife Caroline (18 items, 1847-1867); and her parents Horace and Artemisia (18 items, 1849-1864).

Elizabeth's sisters Artemisia and Emily provided news of Salisbury, Connecticut, with additional comments from "Arte" about experiences teaching school. Clara wrote about sewing, dressmaking, and domestic life in Brooklyn, New York; one of her later letters refers to Salisbury residents serving in the Union Army during the Civil War. Lee Hollister and his wife Caroline discussed their life in Illinois, where Lee taught school. Letters by a fourth sibling, Sarah Hollister Walker, pertain to her life in Metamora, Illinois, and to local religious issues. Horace and Artemisia Hollister, Elizabeth's parents, gave news of family and friends in Salisbury, discussed political issues, and mentioned the possibility of moving to Illinois with their children.

The remaining letters, from other family members and friends, concern the writers' lives in New England and the Midwest. Additional items include a printed letter to members of the First Presbyterian Church of Fort Dodge, Iowa; Mary Lyons's diploma from the Normal Institute of Humboldt County, Iowa; a document regarding the disposition of Walter Lyons's estate; and miscellaneous notes.

Elsie Cree of Griggsville, Illinois, compiled this diary between 1900 and 1908. It consists of entries regarding her day-to-day life, trips, social visits with family and friends, and numerous other subjects.

Elsie Cree began her diary on January 5, 1900, although her last journal had ended July 6 (presumably of 1899). She noted that she was too poor to buy one herself, so waited for "Helen" to give her one for Christmas (page 1).

She wrote extensively about the Cree family--their deaths, sicknesses, weddings, etc., as to Cree, "Weddings and funerals go hand in hand" (page 16)--or such events as the Crees' purchase of a telephone in 1903 (page 58). Many entries contain observations regarding the people she interacted with, like the language quirk of a woman named Harriet who "puts 'en' on the end of words--milken, toasten & yea-yea for yes" (page 3).

Cree remarked on sewing she accomplished (ex. pages 13 and 14), or social events she helped to organize. A dancing party with 35 couples featured five or six of the mothers to "lend dignity to the occasion" and "attend to the refreshments" (page 71).

Additional entries include trips and visits Cree took, such as one to Chautauqua, New York (page 23), and sightseeing in Boston (page 30).

Enclosed are several letters, including a postscript regarding the Hatch coat of arms and from whom it could be furnished in a print suitable for framing; a letter dated February 20, 1928, to "Aunt Lucy" enclosing a typescript (present in the volume) that "father" wrote to General Logan in 1884, apparently from O. M. Hatch; and an eight page description of a "California trip" of June 25, 1914.

The diary's final date is in 1908.