2017 Update

It's been a long time since I have written, but I haven't forgotten about you, dear little blog. Here is what has happened to my collection in the past five years.

• I haven't done anything with Nellie Blake's or Maria Bond's diaries yet.
• I sold Martha Ballard's scrapbook.
• I acquired the 1872 diary of Edward Everett Reynolds of South Acton, Maine, kept when he was 16 years old. My husband and I have transcribed most of it. He was a very hard working young man, who went to school, took night classes, worked on his father's farm, and did jobs for several of their neighbors. I traced him a little bit on Ancestry and found that he grew up, got married, didn't have any children, but became a successful businessman. I also have a diary kept by his sister, Ida Reynolds Shapleigh, in 1889. She was a sad young woman who had lost a child and appears to have lost her home as well, perhaps to a fire. Her husband had to go to Boston to find work at one point. But the year ends on a happier note when he starts a business and they settle in their new home.
• I acquired a very tiny diary with very tiny, difficult to read handwriting. I have not made it all out yet, but appears to have been kept by a young woman living in the northern suburbs of Boston.
• I just acquired a new diary a few days ago. The only identification was a dedication "To Aunt Sarah from Muriel," and the name of the store where it was purchased in New Haven, CT. I've only read through a few months, but was able to identify her using the first names of her husband and children, with the other clues. She was Sarah A. Clark and kept the diary in 1920 when she was 74 years old. She seemed to rarely, if ever, leave the house, and recorded every visit and letter she received. Her 79 year old husband, Ed, was a boat mechanic (apparently still working, at least part time) and Civil War veteran.