A New England tradesman's journal kept by a young journeyman from a family of shoemakers, offering an intimate account of his apprenticeship as well as capturing the commercial scenes in Cape Cod and other New England locales amidst an economic downturn; the journal also includes considerable social-political commentary, reflecting Crocker's...
Manuscript journal of a Boston merchant—an uncle of Ralph Waldo Emerson—illuminating trade, shipping, and life in Boston during the early years of the American republic. Ralph Haskins, born in Boston on April 5, 1779, was apprenticed to Theodore Lyman, a well-established merchant, at a time when Boston was a......
A journal kept by noted Ipswich, Massachusetts minister David T. Kimball during his final year of studies at Harvard University and Harvard Divinity School, and a year of teaching at Phillips Andover Academy. Rev. David Tenney Kimball (1782–1860) was a prominent abolitionist and Pastor of the First Parish in...
An engaging manuscript narrative of a California gold rush voyage, including a harrowing account of passage through the Straits of Magellan and lively descriptions of places visited along the way. Theodore H. Klages left Hamilton, Ontario for California on 17 August 1858. The narrative offered here appears to be...
A fascinating manuscript journal of an early American voyage to China, written by the remarkable Connecticut mariner Donald Mackay, steward aboard the ship Aspasia, commanded by Edmund Fanning, renowned explorer of the South Seas and pioneer of the China Trade. Mackay’s journal records the 1800–02 circumnavigation of the ship.....
An original, apparently unpublished poem on prison life during the war of 1812. Melville Prison, on an island in Halifax Harbor, Nova Scotia, was used to house prisoners captured by the British in the War. This vivid poem, in rhymed couplets, was composed by William Payne Jr. of Philadelphia...
A brief but striking account of a widowed doctor’s visit to his wife’s tomb to look upon her once more, recorded in his daybook. Kept by a doctor with the surname Richard in Braintree, Massachusetts, this day book consists mainly of entries relating to his medical practice (primarily the.....
![[Journal of a Cobbler’s Apprentice]. Luther Crocker.](/pictures/thumb/4330_1.jpg?v=1552057127)
![[Manuscript Journal of a Boston Merchant]. Ralph Haskins.](/pictures/thumb/2100_1.jpg?v=1492033074)
![[Journal of a Harvard student and teacher at Phillips Academy, Andover.] Diary from Jan. 1, 1803, to Sep. 2, 1804 [cover-title]. David Tenney Kimball.](/pictures/thumb/5163_1.jpg?v=1549914042)
![[Narrative of a voyage to California]. Theodore H. Klages.](/pictures/thumb/4577.jpg?v=1543348056)
![Memoirs of a Voyage Around the World in the Ship Aspasia, Capt. Fanning… “What is this world? thy school O misery!” “And he who knows not how to suffer” “Was born for nothing”. [Edward] Young. Donald Mackay.](/pictures/thumb/4137.jpg?v=1542037194)
![[Poem Written by an American Prisoner of the British at Melville Island During the War of 1812]. William Jr Payne.](/pictures/thumb/3819_1.jpg?v=1492454414)
![[A Massachusetts doctor’s daybook.]. Doctor Richard.](/pictures/thumb/5162_1.jpg?v=1547218771)