Sources of Inquiry

Case 5: Journals and Diaries

Individuals who own journals and diaries fill their pages at regular intervals, usually daily, with personal accounts of events, experiences, attitudes, and observations, both significant and trivial. Journals and diaries are unique in that those who write in them usually expect no one else will read the entries. Journals are sometimes distinguished from diaries in that "journals" contain brief daily entries about events, while "diaries" include that content plus observations and opinions.

Beyond their contents, the size and form of the books themselves can inform today's reader about the author's life or experiences. Two journals on display in this case were kept by children and probably read frequently by their parents, another was kept as a combination journal and scrapbook by an adolescent girl who traveled to San Francisco from Liverpool, while a third was carried in the pocket of a Civil War soldier during his military service.

Other journals on display were kept by a surgeon who served in the US Navy during the War of 1812, union soldiers who fought in the Civil War, a local government official in Georgia during the Reconstruction Era, and a young man who recorded his observations and experiences on Pearl Harbor Day before enlisting in the US Army to fight in World War II. Significant and mundane events are also present, as when a man recorded his experiences in 1899's Christmas Day Earthquake in Los Angeles, an LAPD detective logged his daily activities in the 1920s, and a woman recorded her reaction to John F. Kennedy's assassination in 1963.

Case 6, Scrapbooks and Photo Albums, is the flat case closest to you to the south.

• 1

  Diary, Edith M. Haas, 1909Catherine Mulholland Collection

• 2

  Five-Year Diary, Mahala E. Emler, 1963-67Mahala E. Emler Diary Collection

• 3

  Journal, Donald Gordon, 1890Donald Gordon Journal Collection

• 4

  Diary and Scrapbook, James F. Dargan, 1862-63James F. Dargan Civil War Diary and Scrapbook

• 5

  Pocket Diary, Charles H. Peterson, 1863Charles H. Peterson Pocket Diary Collection

• 6

  Diary, Raymond C. Fleming, 1941-42Raymond C. Fleming Collection

• 7

  Journal, Dr. Leonard Osborne, 1809-15Dr. Leonard Osborne Journal

• 8

  Diary, David Cunningham, 1899David W. Cunningham Diary Collection

• 9

  Journal and Account Book, Captain William Royal, 1868Captain William Royal Journal and Account Book

• 10

  Daily Reports Log, Detective E.B. Mortensen, 1924Detective E. B. Mortensen Daily Reports Collection

• 11

  Travel Journal of a trip from Liverpool to San Francisco, 1895Journal of a Trip from Liverpool to San Francisco