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The Henry J. McCance notebook chronicles the Irish businessman's tour of France (1849), business affairs in Belfast (1850-1851), and journey to New York City (1851). He noted specific events and sights from his travels and described the textile industry of the mid-19th century.

The Henry J. McCance notebook chronicles the Irish businessman's tour of France (1849), business affairs in Belfast (1850-1851), and journey to New York City (1851). An inscription in the front of the volume, dated August 1, 1849, reads, "Note Book of sayings & doings & General Memoranda." McCance first discussed his visit to Tours, France, where he saw President Louis Napoleon Bonaparte, whom he described (August 1, 1849), and also commented on his tour of the Colonie de Mettray, a juvenile prison (August 30, 1849). Additionally, he wrote out several recipes (September 3, 1849), though he made few entries the rest of the year. By January 1851, he had returned to Belfast, where he made observations on the textile industry, particularly in relation to the production of flax (January 3, 1851), and discussed business matters. On June 29, 1851, he embarked for the United States onboard the Africa. The remainder of the journal concerns his time sightseeing and working in and around New York City. Though he required time to adapt to local mannerisms, he enjoyed the Fourth of July celebrations (July 4, 1851) and visited sights around the city, including a rejuvenated neighborhood formerly known as a hotbed of crime (July 12, 1851). By late summer, he began to long for Ireland. On September 8, Henry expressed his desire to go home, and arranged for passage to Ireland. Two days later, he was convinced by others to seek business opportunities in the South, and he gave up his berth on the City of Glasgow (September 11, 1851). Henry’s entries in the notebook end abruptly on September 29, 1851.

The journal contains a pencil sketch of a man with a pickaxe (August 30, 1849), and a brief poem, signed H.J. McC., written in the back of the volume, November 17, 1849.

This diary recounts the World War I experiences of Joseph Eve, who served in Battery F of the 101st Field Artillery Regiment during the final months of the war. Eve described his experiences at training sites in the United States, as well as while traveling through France during the months immediately following the war.

This 34-page diary, titled "My Diary while in the Army," recounts Joseph Eve's experiences with Battery F of the Battery F of the 101st Field Artillery Regiment during the final months of World War I. The volume, a running narrative, covers the entirety of Eve's military experiences, beginning with his departure from Salt Lake City on September 2, 1918, and concluding with his return on April 25, 1919. Eve first traveled to Camp Lewis, Washington, where he was formally inducted into the Army, and transferred to Fort Stevens, Oregon, on September 26. While in training, he reported frequent drilling, discussed some of his equipment, and reflected on his cross-country travels. He kept a list of major cities he traveled through both on his way to Oregon and between Oregon and Camp Merritt, New Jersey, where he embarked for Europe on the President Grant around October 28. After writing about the trip, during which a torpedo hit the President Grant's sister ship, the President Lincoln, Eve described the celebrations in France on Armistice Day, when he first arrived in the country.

The remainder of the diary concerns his movements throughout France in the following months. Eve often expressed his displeasure with the accommodations at French camps, and occasionally mentioned performing training exercises with trench mortars. At one camp, he saw a group of German prisoners of war; at another, he encountered veterans who laughed at his unit's prospects of becoming an occupation force. He also visited Paris and described the soldiers and ordnance around Metz, France, before returning to the United States onboard the Mongolia in April 1919. Eve's diary ends with his arrival in Salt Lake City on April 25, one day after his discharge from the Army at Fort Russell, Wyoming.

The final pages of the volume contain additional material, including 2 pages of financial accounts, a list of food items, and a 4-page list of cities Eve traveled through on his way from Shirley, Massachusetts, to Granger, Wyoming. Two pages contain rough sketches of the insignia of 42 infantry divisions of the United States Army, arranged in a grid according to divisional numbers. A ticket for the Paris Métropolitain and a contract between Joseph Bannister and Joseph Eve, granting Eve a lease on Bannister's farm in Grace, Idaho (October 1, 1916), are laid into the volume between the front cover and first page.