Collections : [University of Michigan William L. Clements Library]

An unnamed parent or caregiver kept notes about children in a partially used Teachers' Institute Note Book, 1886. The volume was printed in Chicago and Maquoketa, Iowa, by Donohue & Henneberry and W. M. Welch, respectively, and includes advertisements on the inside covers for educational texts and forms. Two pages of manuscript notes define musical intervals. An additional nine pages of text sporadically document the words and actions of at least two children, Harry and Inez, between the ages of 1.5 and 5.5 years old. The writer notes the ages at which children were singing, the type of art they created, the humorous questions, observations, and comments they made, and religious thoughts they vocalized.

An unnamed parent or caregiver kept notes about children in a partially used Teachers' Institute Note Book, 1886. The volume was printed in Chicago and Maquoketa, Iowa, by Donohue & Henneberry and W. M. Welch, respectively, and includes advertisements on the inside covers for educational texts and forms. Two pages of manuscript notes define musical intervals. An additional nine pages of text sporadically document the words and actions of at least two children, Harry and Inez, between the ages of 1.5 and 5.5 years old. The writer notes the ages at which children were singing, the type of art they created, the humorous questions, observations, and comments they made, and religious thoughts they vocalized.

The childhood observations about death, spirits, and God reflect a religious upbringing and household, including one entry about how Harry "was drawing a picture of a deathbed scene where angels were coming to carry the man's spirit to God in accordance with what he had been told on the subject. He said 'Mama I guess one angel holds the man's mouth open while the other takes his spirit out of him.' " Comments about dogs, toys, and imaginative games speak to youthful entertainment and play, and others are more suggestive about the conditions in the children's environment that caught their attention. Questions like "what color is the moon on the other side," or observations that a dead mouse "is kind of wilted isn't it," provide insights into what the children were seeing and wondering about.

One entry at the back of the volume reads, "J. D. McAuliff (Heals by rubbing) St. Louis, Mo."

This 72-page diary is an account of the five-month trip Sophia Cumming McCormick took with her uncle, aunt, and cousin from Savannah, Georgia, to New York City and along the East Coast in 1811. A second, shorter portion of the diary consists of nine entries from 1818, in which McCormick reflected on her spiritual state.

This 72-page diary is an account of the five-month trip Sophia Cumming McCormick took with her uncle, aunt, and cousin from Savannah, Georgia, to New York City and along the East Coast in 1811. A second, shorter portion of the diary consists of nine entries from 1818, in which McCormick reflected on her spiritual state.

The first 65 pages of the diary (May 22, 1811-November 4, 1811) contain daily entries chronicling McCormick's travel experiences. She recorded details about the geographic, physical, and historical features of the cities and towns she and her family visited or passed through. Her accounts of New York City, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Washington, D.C., and Richmond are the most extensive, and include details about specific streets, buildings, and bridges. McCormick's descriptions of Charles Wilson Peale's natural history museum in Philadelphia (located in what is now the basement of Independence Hall) and the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., are particularly colorful.

McCormick's entries from July to September 1811, written while she attended Miss Scribner's School in Morristown, New Jersey, are often brief, though she commented more extensively about Fourth of July celebrations and recorded her thoughts about leaving the school. She also mentioned a Morristown funeral custom, a solar eclipse seen from Trenton, a visit to Thomas Jefferson's birthplace, public water supplies, a Gaelic-language sermon near Fayetteville, North Carolina. Throughout her travels, McCormick recorded the names of churches she attended, along with the ministers' names and sermon topics.

The second part of the diary (7 pages) consists of 9 entries dated between July 11, 1818, and November 1 [1818?]. In these entries, McCormick primarily reflected on her spiritual well-being. She appears to have been traveling during this span of time as well, staying with cousins near Augusta, Georgia.