Collections

This volume is a typed journal of a group's canoe and camping trip on Lake George, New York, in the summer of 1892. The typescript is illustrated with 21 photographs of the campers, their equipment, and the scenery.

This volume is a 27-page typed journal of a group's canoe and camping trip on Lake George, New York, in the summer of 1892. The typescript is illustrated with 21 photographs of the campers, their equipment, and the scenery.

The Lake George camping party consisted of at least seven acquaintances: Charles W. Byrnes, Alice B. Byrnes, William L. Brown, Georgia B. Sumner, Edwin W. Andrews, Maybelle Ramsay, and R. C. Sargent. Maybelle and a man referred to as "the Doctor" left the group partway through the trip. The account, titled "Wotlarks: A Camping Journal," opens with an epigraph by William Henry Harrison Murray, followed by 24 pages of recollections. The campers embarked from Caldwell, New York, on July 31, 1892, spent 2 weeks on the lake, and then boarded a train for Boston from the area around Fort Ticonderoga on August 13, 1892.

The author of this typescript (possibly camper William L. Brown), described the scenery, meals, and notable incidents. He or she also quoted poems by P. Buchanan Read and Isaac Ogden Rankin. The 7 party members signed the final page of the typescript. Twenty-one photographs, pasted onto sturdy boards between pages of the journal, depict scenery around Lake George, the campers in their canoes, men and women posing with guns, a man fishing, the group near their tents, and other scenes.

The volume includes a carefully drawn or traced manuscript map of Lake George, marked with the places that the campers visited.

The Louis G. Monté collection is made up of 2 diaries about Americans traveling in Europe in the summer of 1899. Monté and another traveler wrote entries about sightseeing in England, France, Germany, and the Netherlands. Both journals have pencil drawings of people encountered and each doubles as a scrapbook with photographs, tickets, programs, and other ephemera.

The Louis G. Monté collection is made up of 2 diaries about Americans traveling in Europe in the summer of 1899. Monté and another traveler wrote entries about sightseeing in several European countries, and both used their journals as scrapbooks.

Louis G. Monté wrote daily diary entries between July 5, 1899, and August 26, 1899 (Volume 1, pages 5-73). He described his journey from Charlestown, Massachusetts, to England on the steamer New England and arrived on July 14. He saw the sights in London, England; Paris, France; Aix-la-Chapelle (Aachen), Cologne (Köln) and Düsseldorf, Germany; and Amsterdam and Haarlem, Netherlands. He often visited museums and commented on local architecture and customs. Monté's brief final entries pertain to his return journey from Antwerp, Belgium, to New York on the steamer Southwark. Monté also used his book as a scrapbook for photographs and ephemera (pages 1-4 and 1a-36a; not all pages are used), and he wrote notes about French, English, and German currency on pages 2-4. The book's endpapers and cover also have items pasted in, such as tickets, programs, advertisements, and other ephemera. Photographs primarily depict scenes and people in the Netherlands, and numerous drawings illustrate people he encountered during his European travels. Pages 21a-22a (Volume 1) contain an essay on English architecture.

The second diary (unattributed) covers the author's travels from August 3, 1899-August 16, 1899 (pages 1-33), with photographs, stamps, tickets, train schedules, and other ephemera interleaved with the journal entries (pages 34-55 and 1a-55a; not all pages are used). The author drew pictures of people and wrote notes. He visited the same locations as Monté and sketched a nearly identical image of a woman in Aix-La-Chappelle, Germany (Vol. 1, p. 19a; Vol. 2, p. 2). Most of the pasted-in ephemera items pertain to travels in the Netherlands.

The New Hampshire travel diary concerns a journey taken by three men from Amesbury, Massachusetts, to Mount Washington and surrounding areas in central New Hampshire. The diarist recorded the names of towns visited by the party and described scenery and natural features.

The 24-page New Hampshire travel diary (September 12, 1894-September 26, 1894) concerns a journey taken by three men from Amesbury, Massachusetts, to Mount Washington and surrounding areas in central New Hampshire. The diarist recorded the names of towns visited by the party and described scenery and natural features.

Frank Hibbs, Dan Couch, and George Thomell traveled with two horses and a small dog. The diarist recorded the towns through which they passed and mentioned the group's nightly campsites. After traveling along New Hampshire's southeastern border with Maine, they went north and west through towns including Laconia, Campton, and Woodstock. They headed east around the mountains after reaching Franconia, bound for Mount Washington and, at the end of the diary, Tuckerman's Ravine. The travelers occasionally encountered acquaintances from Amesbury. The diary includes descriptions of historical sites and natural landmarks the group passed, including a 17th-century house (September 13, 1894, page 4), Vice President Henry Wilson's birthplace (September 13, 1894, page 5), the Old Man in the Mountain (September 21, 1894, page 17), Mount Washington (September 23, 1894, page 20), and Glen Ellis Falls (September 26, 1894, page 24). The diarist described the Flume Gorge near Franconia, New Hampshire, at length in his entry of September 20, 1894 (pages 13-15). The dates of 2 funerals held in 1911 are listed on a single page that follows the entries.

The New York City to Cincinnati travel journal pertains to the author's travels in New York, Pennsylvania, Washington, D.C., and West Virginia around the mid-19th century.

The New York City to Cincinnati travel journal (27 pages) pertains to the author's travels in New York, Pennsylvania, Washington, D.C., and West Virginia. The diarist visited an aunt in New York City before embarking for Philadelphia onboard a steamboat. While sailing, the author described an attempt to compose a charcoal sketch of a fellow passenger. After visiting the Smithsonian Institution and other sites in Washington, D.C., the traveler went to West Virginia by stage. On board the Buck Eye State, an Ohio River steamer, the author discussed their curiosity about a fellow passenger. The final page of the journal contains a list of travel expenses.

The Niagara Falls travel diary contains entries written while the diarist (anonymous) was on a trip from Albany, New York, to Niagara Falls, in the summer of 1815. The volume includes descriptions of the terrain around the falls and of the people the traveler met during the journey.

The Niagara Falls travel diary (18 pages) contains entries written while the diarist was on a trip from Albany, New York, to Niagara Falls, in the summer of 1815. The volume includes descriptions of the terrain around the falls and of the people the traveler met during the journey.

In the first entry, dated July 24, 1815, the author described a tour to Niagara Falls, starting at Albany and traveling past Utica along the Mohawk River. The diarist noted that the terrain was "unmistakable for its beauty" and compared it favorably to Harper’s Ferry. The second entry, August 4, describes the trip by ferry from Buffalo, New York, to Fort Erie, and eventually to Niagara. At Fort Erie, which was "a heap of ruin," the traveler encountered a military officer who had witnessed the fort’s siege by the British in 1814. Next, the author described the town of Chippewa, which suffered a damaging battle one year earlier. Passing Fort Niagara, the travelers enjoyed an easy approach to Niagara Falls; the writer described its physical features as well as the inhabitants of the area, including the Forsyth family, who hosted them. The diarist was disappointed that this natural wonder was so easy to reach, and lamented that the falls were "so completely at our command[,] so entirely abased at our feet." Multiple paths stretched along the falls, including trails on both the Canadian and New York sides.

"Notes for a Journal of a Pedestrian Tour" is a 112-page account of a group's walking trip from Baltimore, Maryland, through northern Maryland, southern Pennsylvania, and eastern West Virginia in the late summer of 1816.

"Notes for a Journal of a Pedestrian Tour" is a 112-page account of a group's walking trip from Baltimore, Maryland, through northern Maryland, southern Pennsylvania, and eastern West Virginia in the late summer of 1816.

The account, written after the journey, is divided into 12 titled chapters chronicling the group's experiences. Notes pertain to the scenery and acquaintances the group encountered, both old and new. Group members "Suffolk" and "Sidney" left Baltimore on August 6, 1816, and traveled to Frederick, Maryland, by way of the Patapsco River. There, they picked up their luggage, sent ahead by stage. They proceeded west toward the mountains and entered West Virginia just before September; they stayed at Harper's Ferry and Bath (Berkeley Springs). After several weeks traveling by foot, the men joined two Baltimore companions, "Manly" and "Moreton," on a trip down the Potomac River toward "George Town." The party then returned to Baltimore. In its rendering of dialogue and descriptions of scenery, the account often adopts a prose style similar to that found in fictional narrative. The volume has colored ink drawings of several men and women gathered around a roaring fire and the "Falls of Potomac." The author also included a poem by the travelers, entitled "An Evening on Potomac" (pages 97-109).

• Chapter 1: Introduction (pages 1-5)
• Chapter 2: The Peerless (pages 6-16)
• Chapter 3: The Maid of Benvoirloch (pages 16-42)
• Chapter 4: Frederick Town (pages 43-47)
• Chapter 5: The Misfortune (pages 47-53)
• Chapter 6: Harper's Ferry (pages 53-57)
• Chapter 7: The Cave (pages 57-69)
• Chapter 8: The Thunderstorm (pages 70-78)
• Chapter 9: The Merriest on the Border (pages 78-87)
• Chapter 10: The Descent (pages 88-109)
• Chapter 11: The Conclusion (pages 109-112)

The Ohio Bookseller's diary chronicles the experiences of a travelling book salesman in southwestern Ohio during the early months of 1869. He also recorded accounts, poetry, and quotations throughout the year.

The Ohio Bookseller's diary chronicles the experiences of a travelling salesman in southwestern Ohio during the early months of 1869; he also recorded accounts, poetry, and quotations throughout the year. The author consistently wrote brief daily entries between January 1 and March 8, 1869, chiefly noting his efforts to make sales, often with little success. The diarist faithfully recorded the names of acquaintances with whom he stayed, and mentioned seeing several old college friends during his time in Yellow Springs. Daily entries ended on March 8, 1869, though the author occasionally added accounts, often related to corn, as well as poetry and quotations. On one date, he drew a a music staff, labeled with note names, and recorded facts about the Bible and about the death of George Washington.

A young physician wrote most of this diary while a passenger on a voyage from Alexandria, Virginia, to Boston, Massachusetts, in 1846. Content includes humorous accounts of sailing by river and ocean, observations of sailors' superstitions (i.e., Mother Carey's Chickens, also known as Storm Petrels, St. Elmo's fire, etc.), weather and storm patterns, personal health, and patient treatment.

A young physician wrote most of this diary while a passenger on a voyage from Alexandria, Virginia, to Boston, Massachusetts, in 1846. Content includes humorous accounts of sailing by river and ocean, sailors' superstitions (i.e., Mother Carey's Chickens, also known as Storm Petrels, St. Elmo's Fire, etc.), weather and storm patterns, personal health, and patient treatment.

His humor often took the form of comical comparisons and exaggerations or plays on dialect. To entertain himself, he brought several books: Blackstone's Commentaries on the Laws of England, by William Blackstone, the Bible, and a pocket Shakespeare. He attached varying levels of reading intensity to each, as well as the applicable situation in which he might read them—Blackstone's Commentaries, for example, was "suitable for a listless, languid frame of mind" (page 6).

He brought with him two Bologna sausages, which he jokingly and emphatically mistook for a woman's bustle in an expression of his apparent hatred for the garment (pages 6-7). When he had to throw the spoiled sausages overboard several days later, he lamented that he couldn't do the same with every bustle in the land (pages 23-24).

The author and several others (the captain, a skipper, and officers from a nearby revenue cutter) briefly disembarked to visit a family's farm in Virginia while waiting for better winds to sail. He included racial epithets that the family used when he quoted their complaints about the labor involved in caring for their farm without enslaved workers (page 22). The skipper revealed that the author was a physician, whereupon he was entreated to care for several members of the family. The mother's eye had been "eaten out by cancer" and the young daughter had a hard lump on her nose that the family felt sure would turn into cancer. The author treated the daughter's nose by excising the lump.

At some point between Washington, D.C., and Alexandria, the author wrote of being "assaulted, battered, and robbed" by bedbugs, which led him to construct a makeshift bed of camp stools to sleep on to avoid being bitten at night (page 11). His rheumatism also caused significant discomfort during the trip, and a self-administered treatment of liniment did little to ease his symptoms (page 34). Although the physician questioned whether or not he would become seasick at some point during the voyage, he narrowly avoided it—he did, however, treat a fellow passenger with a course of "consolation [and] pills" (page 30) after the man became seasick and vomited over the fresh paint sailors were applying to the bulwarks and rigging.

The entries from page 46 onwards were most likely written after the author landed in Boston. He wrote about his plans to attend a series of lectures given by Prof. Agassiz [Louis Agassiz] on animal classification.

This travel diary records the daily progress of a team of prospectors exploring possible routes for stagecoach lines in Texas, 1838. The entries primarily document details relevant to stagecoach operations such as terrain, populations, soil types, climate, and distances traveled.

This Texas travel diary records the daily progress of a team of prospectors exploring possible routes for stagecoach lines. The author does not record his personal experiences and includes only details relevant to operating a stagecoach line: terrain; banks and depths of rivers to be forded; costs of oats, corn and hay for feeding horses; the presence of Indians; populations to support mail delivery and transportation over the route; availability of timber for building bridges and ferries; competition from other stage lines; availability of potable water; agricultural potential of the land along the route; and mileages from one place to another.

The team set out from Jefferson City in mule-drawn wagons on January 4, 1838, and traveled southwest into the Indian Territory (later Oklahoma). They crossed into the Oklahoma Cherokee Indian Territory at Neosho on January 18, and then headed south to Fort Gibson, where the author went alone on horseback to Fort Smith on the Arkansas border, and rejoined the group later.

They crossed Texas at Preston on the Red River (North of Dallas) at the end of January and arrived at Franklin (now El Paso) on March 17. On March 21, they set out on the return trip, taking a slightly different route, and returned to Preston on Sunday, April 11.

Of special interest are the descriptions of the terrain diagonally southwest across the Indian Territory (later Oklahoma) and Texas in the early days of United States possession, while Texas was still an independent republic. The author notes the difficulties that would be encountered in establishing a mail and stage coach line through this terrain and comments on the agricultural possibilities of the land. He describes streams and rivers and recommends potential settings for stations.

The Vanderpool religious journal contains religious diary entries from three authors over the course of 52 years.

The Vanderpool religious journal contains religious diary entries from three authors over the course of 52 years. The journalists began their portions of the volume with brief biographical introductions, and offered numerous musings on their relationships to religion. The first, and most prolific, writer began his biographical note with an account of his conversion, and on August 14, 1833, started his daily diary entries, which focused on the impact of religion on his life. After August 31, entries became more sporadic until a final note on January 1, 1841.

The second portion of the journal is dated November 14, 1866, and contains a brief autobiographical note about the author, likely C. W. Vanderpool, including indications of strong religious convictions. A loose paper inserted into this section of the volume indicates that the book was a gift to C. W. Vanderpool from his mother, Helen Elmira Vanderpool, of Buffalo, New York.

The third body of material in the journal consists of two pages written in January 1885 by a member of the Young Men's Christian Association, and relates primarily to attendance at several religious meetings and other events. This section of the volume concludes on January 30, 1885.

The journal also contains "Exertations from the following texts," which is a list of Bible verses and brief lines taken from them.