One Line a Day: Five-Year Journals

by Carri Frola, Archivist, CSUN Special Collections & Archives - November 08, 2022

Special Collections and Archives cares for a wide range of diaries and journals that reveal the details of the lives of all different kinds of folks, including a World War II veteran, a young female traveler, a surgeon, and many more.

One unique format that can be found amongst diaries and journals is the five-year journal. In this type of journal, the writer records short entries every day, and when the new year begins, they go back and record the day’s entry next to the previous year’s entry. Then, after five years each page displays a single day spanning five years. Essentially, each page represents a single day for five consecutive years. The practice helps the writer see what they were doing on the same day during the previous years.

One such journal in Special Collections and Archives is the Millicent Farrington Lowry Diary. Millicent was a woman living in New York during World War II. The diary documents Millicent's life on the homefront from 1943 through 1947. The journal provides a contrasting look into what Millicent's life was like both during the war (1943-1945), and after the war (1945-1947).

The entries notably mention her husband Bob's secret work on the atomic bomb, and the end of World War II, with her son Robert returning home safe. The front of the diary indicates that it is Volume 7. The last pages of the diary contain a short family history, and small facts and notes such as roman numerals and how to use a watch as a compass.

Diaries and journals of this format are sometimes cataloged as “Line-A-Day” journals. Benefits of this type of writing might include reflecting back on previous years; identifying patterns in your life and changing them if they are negative, or repeating them if they are positive; and, since the entries are short, focusing your writing to quickly log activities or big events.

At the end of the five years the journal acts as a sort of time capsule, displaying all of the information for a particular day of the year on a single page! Millicent’s diary includes a set of instructions that declare, “You will find amusing recollections that will bring chuckles – possibly business affairs whose record will prove valuable and certainly little precious memories that you will want to keep in the permanent form which this book provides.”

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