Item #3735 Manuscript Diary of a Hudson River Valley School Girl. Minnie La Mont.
Manuscript Diary of a Hudson River Valley School Girl
Manuscript Diary of a Hudson River Valley School Girl
Manuscript Diary of a Hudson River Valley School Girl
Manuscript Diary of a Hudson River Valley School Girl

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Manuscript Diary of a Hudson River Valley School Girl

Poughkeepsie, NY: 1856. 8vo, half calf, grey cloth over boards, marbled edges. 100 pp. of manuscript; additional 11 pp. ribbon-bound manuscript tipped in.

The diary of a teenage schoolgirl, one Minnie La Mont, at the Poughkeepsie Female Academy in 1856, recording her daily life and thoughts among her friends and studies in the Hudson River Valley.

Typical of her time, she conceives of her journal as an intimate friend ("You know journal I depend upon thee to keep myself out of mischief — do not forsake me, but be a true friend") capable of interacting with her other companions. She often writes in the company of other girls, sometimes allowing a close acquaintance to read over her shoulder. The hands of at least two others are discernible in the very first and last pages of the book, one of whom, responding fifteen years later, apparently read the whole thing.

Though the headmaster of the Poughkeepsie Female Academy, Jacob Tooker, emphasized "the importance of a more thorough moral culture in…schools" (District School Journal) Minnie and her friends invested a great deal of time and energy sitting at windows and engaging in "flirtations" with passing boys, including two very handsome ones from Spain. "Les Espagnol's [sic] passed and repassed, oh Journal I dare not tell thee the number of times for thee would not believe me. Held a note up, oh would that we could get it (impossible)." She is often frustrated by the constraints imposed upon her at school (the realm which she refers to as "Tooker Ville"), and sometimes rebels against them. "This morning Shary Fleming and I pretended to go a shopping with Mr. Tooker (for we are not allowed to go out alone) got as [far] as the Post Office when managed to get around the corner in a hurry: so as to dispense with his company. Indeed we did, and improved the time shopping." Her disobedience never stems from dislike, however, and she mourns along with everybody else when Mr. Tooker dies of an illness midway through the journal, leaving his wife to fill his shoes.

Alongside her teenage flirtatiousness, Minnie has deep friendships, serious concerns, and earnestly endeavors to be a better person. "I have had a very serious and good conversation with my dear Teacher Miss Noyes about our eternal welfare," she reports one evening, and frequently enlists her journal in helping her keep resolves. Tipped into the diary is, in addition to several notes and letters, a small manuscript containing an almost platonic dialogue on the relationship between outer beauty and inner learning. "Sara" holds the attitude that "it is more pleasant to enjoy life as it goes without taxing ones brains over all sorts of abstruse sciences," and breaks free from the more earnest thoughts of her interlocutor "Anna" with the remark: "did you notice the [darling] beauty of that face that has just passed us?" Anna replies: "I did Sara and if from personal appearances any thing can be judged of intellectual abilities an acquaintance with the possessor would be desirable." Like many classical dialogues, Anna and Sara's conversation avoids proffering any conclusive thesis, even in the form of agreement between participants. While Sara makes a gestural concession to Anna ("You have almost convinced me that intellectual culture is necessary not only to render one useful but truly lovely, and that life is not to be a scene of frivolous enjoyment or to be masted [sic] in superficial attainments") the dialogue ends with both characters returning "with renewed vigor and enthusiasm" to their lives.

An intimate account of mid-nineteenth century school life by a young schoolgirl in the Hudson River Valley.

REFERENCES: District School Journal, of the State of New York, Vol. IV, No. 4, p. 56.

CONDITION: Good, some wear at corners and spine edges; one word excised where the diary reads “He is very talented, not handsome, but [excised word],” affecting word on other side of leaf as well; loss at foot of one page affecting half a sentence; detached section of first 3 leaves.

Item #3735

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