Dave Horton, Mount Joy, Pennsylvania: Several years ago, I received two diaries kept by my step-grandmother from a woman in Florida who had found them in a box at a garage sale. The diaries were from my step-grandmother’s early high school years in Franklin, New Hampshire, and her college years at Mount Holyoke, 1912-1919. Also included were ticket stubs, programs, a dance card, and other momentos.

Alice Blakely Marsh, Jericho, Vermont: My grandmother Lucy Grover and her sister Hazel owned identical diaries and wrote in them for several months in 1909 when they were in grade school. The diaries were acquired by the Middletown Springs [Vt.] Historical Society, and in 2023, a dramatic reading was given by two young girls representing the two sisters. I was privileged to be in the audience. The reading is on YouTube.

Charles F. Holman, III, Bowie, Maryland: My great-grandfather Moses Clark kept a diary of his travels as Grand Master of the Arkansas Prince Hall Masonic organization from the 1880s to about 1906. He was an enslaved person for more than twenty years and in freedom became a lawyer, magistrate, newspaper editor, and a prosperous man. This entry is from April 1, 1893: “After getting through with my work and resting on Sunday, [I] returned to Hope by rail. On the way the train ran over a little colored girl about 11 years old, in broad daylight and on a straight stretch of road. Oh, it made me feel so badly. Arriving at Hope I received a telegram from home announcing the death of our baby on Saturday. I telegraphed . . . that I might return home. Arriving there, I found the little one had been shipped to Helena. We went down, buried our baby and returned to my work.”

Kristin Sandefur, Euless, Texas: My ancestor Newton Alphonso Prudden (1805–1889) of Bethlehem, Connecticut, kept a diary while serving as a cooper on whaling ships. He wrote about being briefly shipwrecked. His oilcloth-covered diary, scrimshaw tooth, and perpetual calendar made from whalebone are prized possessions in my family.

Vickie McCubbin, Independence, Oregon: My great-grandfather Thomas Mitchel Davies kept a journal during General Sherman’s March to the Sea during the Civil War. He served in the 4th Iowa, 3rd Brigade, 1st Division, 15th A.C. As a middle school social studies teacher, I used his account to help my students understand the difference between primary and secondary sources. I asked them to look up dates and locations my great-grandfather referenced in his account of the march.

Anne Scanley, Washington, DC: My grandmother Dorothy Richardson Gross kept a hand-written diary for most of her life. Her June 23, 1917, entry describing the first time she met her future in-laws has given me a good chuckle and a sense of my great-grandparents that I would not have gotten otherwise. She wrote, “Mrs. Gross is quite stout and nervous and talks constantly but is as dear and kind as can be…. Mr. Gross is a darling old white haired white bearded soul with a pink rose in his button hole and quite absorbed in his garden and chickens.”