Anonymous: Diary kept by minister or religious member, 1813

This collection contains 23 diaries and journals, composed by twelve people; eighteen diaries from the 19th century, and five from the 20th century. Creators range in age from nine to adulthood. The diary of Milo Leon Norton includes poetry dated 1907, and the diary of Miss Parkinson (?) includes some financial records from 1897. The earliest diary originates in 1813, written by an anonymous member of church clergy. Also included is an album by an anonymous female creator from the McLean Asylum in Somerville, Massachusetts (1857). The diaries of Nellie Francis Reed (1876-1883), and Miss Parkinson(?) recall daily life, health, and relationships with friends and family, while the diaries of Helen Isabel Moorhouse (b. 1876) recalls her time spent as a musician in-residence at the Banff Spring Hotel in Alberta, Canada with several other women in 1907. Also included in the collection are several manuscript diaries of George William Mason (b. 1859), spanning 1869-1876, that of which recall his childhood activities, school, church, and life on his parents’ farm in Agawam, Massachusetts, as well as a diary by Dana W. Barton, from Croydon, Sullivan County, New Hampshire, spanning 1880-1881, dealing with life working for a farmer.