Diaries

The Diaries collection provides access to more than thirty fully transcribed and searchable diaries from the eighteenth, nineteenth and twentieth century. The collection includes diaries documenting student life at UVM in different eras, the 1918-1919 flu epidemic, the civil war, life in Italy in the early 1860’s, courtship and marriage, social life, religious life, employment opportunities for women, travel, life at a summer cottage, and more.

Showing 1 - 10 of 32 Records

Erastus Root Diary, 1815-1818
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    • Creator: Root, Erastus, 1789-1829.
    • Date Created: 1815-1818
    • Description: Erastus Root was born on January 9, 1789 to Timothy and Patience (Gleason) Barber Root in Guilford, Vt. After two years of study under the tutelage of Rev. Jason Chamberlain, Root enrolled at Williams College in 1809, before transferring to the University of Vermont in 1811 to continue studying with Chamberlain, who had been elected UVM’s Professor of Learned Languages in the interim. Root graduated from UVM with a bachelor’s degree in 1814 and spent the next three years studying medicine: he began his studies with Dr. Willard Arms of Brattleboro for a year and a half, then returned to UVM in the fall of 1815 to attend their medical lectures and continue his studies with Dr. John Pomeroy, and finally completed his studies at Dartmouth College, receiving his medical license in 1817. Root eventually moved to Boston, where he married Lucinda Jacobs on February 1, 1821. The couple had one daughter before Lucinda’s death in 1822 and Root’s death in New York on February 24, 1829. Topics in Root’s diary include UVM’s medical program in early nineteenth century, John Pomeroy, early nineteenth-century medical practices, teaching in Vermont in early nineteenth century, and modes of travel in the early nineteenth century.
    • Parent Collections: Diaries


    Cephas Kent, Jr. Diary, Undated
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      • Creator: Kent, Cephas, Jr., 1754-1813.
      • Date Created: undated
      • Description: Cephas Kent Jr. was born on April 2, 1754 in Suffield, CT (Colony) to Cephas and Hannah (Spencer) Kent. In 1773, Kent moved with his family to what later became Dorset, Vt., where his father, a deacon as well as a tavern owner, took an active role in the American and Vermont independence movements. Kent enlisted in the Continental Army during the summer of 1775 and served as an aide-de-camp on General Montgomery’s staff. His primary responsibilities included cooking and caring for the officers’ baggage, but he also participated in several skirmishes, taking up arms at decisive moments during the Siege of Fort St. Jean. On January 30, 1779, Kent married Lydia Sheldon and the couple had several children. Kent died in Dorset on January 9, 1813. The first part of Kent’s diary details his religious experiences between the ages of 12 and 21, while the remainder describes his participation in the Continental Army’s campaign into Canada in 1775, especially the Siege of Fort St. Jean (“St. Johns”).
      • Parent Collections: Diaries


      Caroline Crane Marsh Diary, January 1 - April 7, 1863
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        • Creator: Marsh, Caroline Crane, 1816-1901.
        • Date Created: 1863
        • Description: Troubles within the Church of England, the Polish Revolution, and widespread dissatisfaction with the Italian government and King Victor Emmanuel serve as the backdrop for the events in this diary. After a little more sightseeing in and around Pegli, the Marshes head to Piobesi and move into the Castello di Piobesi Torinese for the summer. Topics in this diary include Protestantism in Italy, crime in Italy, acquiring and occupying real estate in Italy, music and performance in Italy, the climate and culture in Piobesi, Italian elite’s attitudes towards liberalism, Italian social etiquette, tourism and hospitality in Italy, women’s education and occupations in the 19th century, and Italian and international attitudes towards the United States and the American Civil War.
        • Parent Collections: Caroline Crane Marsh Diaries, Vermont Diaries


        Caroline Crane Marsh Diary, January 1 - March 7, 1862
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          • Creator: Marsh, Caroline Crane, 1816-1901.
          • Date Created: 1862
          • Description: The international political climate remains unsettled in this diary: political unrest continues across Europe and war seems imminent between England and the United States in the wake of the Trent Affair. The Italian political scene, however, becomes quite turbulent during the period: demonstrations in favor of national unification break out across Italy, the Italian ministry is dissolved, Bettino Ricasoli steps down, and Urbano Rattazzi becomes the new prime minister. Throughout all of this, the Marshes stay in Turin and continue to meet Italian elites and foreign nationals, including Rosa Arbesser, governess to Princess Margherita of Savoy. They also renew their acquaintance with Hungarian exile Lajos Kossuth and his family. The Marshes attend several political and social gatherings during this period and play their part in the Doria-Benedetti feud, “the social revolt against France” by the Torinese elites. Topics in this diary include the status and problems of Italian women, the role of women in marriage and society in the 19th century, Italian marriages and the influence of the Catholic church on marriage, education in Italy, the etiquette of Italian royalty and elites, Catholicism, and the celebration of Carnival in Italy.
          • Parent Collections: Caroline Crane Marsh Diaries, Vermont Diaries


          Caroline Crane Marsh Diary, July 24 - October 10, 1862
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            • Creator: Marsh, Caroline Crane, 1816-1901.
            • Date Created: 1862
            • Description: Political unrest in Italy punctuates the events in this diary: Garibaldi’s failed attack on Rome (the Battle of Aspromonte) ends with his injury and surrender and the arrest of Ferenc Pulszky; demonstrations break out across Italy and martial law is declared in Sicily, and France refuses to give a definitive answer on the “Roman Question.” In the United States, President Lincoln announces that he will issue the Emancipation Proclamation in early 1863. These months prove eventful for the Marshes, as well. They move out of the Casa d’Angennes and take a trip to Switzerland, passing in and out of the Alps as they tour the country. After a quick trip to London to see his publishers, George Perkins Marsh rejoins his wife and niece in Switzerland and returns with them to Italy, stopping for a time in Como. Topics in this diary include education at Italian universities, political sentiments among Italian elites, relations between the Italian social classes, Italian etiquette, agriculture and rural industry in Italy and Switzerland, tourism and hospitality in Italy and Switzerland, Alpine avalanches, the English Colonial Society and English church services in Switzerland, the Fugitive Slave Law, and the marriage of Princess Maria Pia.
            • Parent Collections: Caroline Crane Marsh Diaries, Vermont Diaries


            Caroline Crane Marsh Diary, October 10, 1862 - January 20, 1863
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              • Creator: Marsh, Caroline Crane, 1816-1901.
              • Date Created: 1862-1863
              • Description: This diary records the events leading up to the resignation of Urbano Rattazzi and his ministry in Italy, as well as the events that follow the 1862 elections and the issuance of the Emancipation Proclamation in the United States. While the Marshes search for a new place to live, they sightsee in Como, hike Mount Bisbino, and settle into a temporary residence in Pegli (a seaside neighborhood in Genoa), where they befriend the Tebbs and Strettell families. Topics in this diary include Giuseppe Garibaldi, renting and occupying real estate in Italy, Italian art and architecture, Italian etiquette, Italian marriages, the education of women in the 19th century, tourism in Italy, the culture, climate, and industries in Genoa; Italian agricultural practices, public religious celebrations, the “Roman Question,” Christianity among the English and their attitudes towards Catholicism, crime and punishment in Italy, and Caroline Crane Marsh’s reasons for keeping a diary.
              • Parent Collections: Caroline Crane Marsh Diaries, Vermont Diaries


              Caroline Crane Marsh Diary, June 7 - September 30, 1861
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                • Creator: Marsh, Caroline Crane, 1816-1901.
                • Date Created: 1861
                • Description: This diary covers the Marshes’ first months in Italy and describes their first impressions of the country and its people. During this period, the Marshes befriend the Abbe Giuseppe Filippo Baruffi, astronomer Barone Giovanni Plana, and the Tottenham family, among others. They also meet the rest of the diplomatic corps in Turin, as well as many preeminent Italians, including King Victor Emmanuel II, Bettino Ricasoli, and Urbano Rattazzi. They learn much about Italy’s most recent prime minister, the Count of Cavour, who dies the day before the Marshes arrive in Turin. After the Marshes settle into the Casa d’Angennes (their home in Turin), they go on several sightseeing trips, hiking in the Alps and visiting Lago Maggiore and Villarbasse. Topics in this diary include the “Roman Question,” the Pope, and Catholicism; negotiations between Italy, the United States, and Giuseppe Garibaldi; the treatment of Garibaldi and Garibaldian soldiers by Italian government, the Torinese elites and their customs, rural life and rural industries, such as winemaking; the American Civil War, especially slavery and foreign enlistment; Ottoman politics, Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s death, and the Great Comet of 1861.
                • Parent Collections: Caroline Crane Marsh Diaries, Vermont Diaries


                Caroline Crane Marsh Diary, March 1 - May 6, 1864
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                  • Creator: Marsh, Caroline Crane, 1816-1901.
                  • Date Created: 1864
                  • Description: European political relations remain tense in this diary, while rumors of an imminent rapprochement between Garibaldi and the Italian government precede Garibaldi’s departure for England. In Turin, the Marshes receive a visit from Lady Caroline Estcourt and her sisters and continue to attend lectures and sightsee in and around the city. Topics in this diary include charity in Italy, relations between the Italian social classes, etiquette in Italy, Italian royalty and nobility, death, grief, and memorialization in Italy; Italy’s literary circle, Italian art, spiritualism, democracy, slavery in the United States, and Catholicism.
                  • Parent Collections: Caroline Crane Marsh Diaries, Vermont Diaries


                  Roswell Farnham Diary, 1848-1849
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                    • Creator: Farnham, Roswell, 1827-1903.
                    • Date Created: 1848-1849
                    • Description: Roswell Farnham was born in Boston, Massachusetts on July 23, 1827, the son of Roswell and Nancy Bixby Farnham. Farnham's family moved to Bradford, Vermont in 1840, and he received his education at Bradford Academy and the University of Vermont, from which he graduated in 1849. Married to Mary Elizabeth Johnson on December 25, 1849, Farnham taught school before gaining admittance to the Orange County bar in 1857. When the Civil War broke out, he entered the First Vermont Regiment with the Bradford Guards militia as a Second Lieutenant. Farnham served with distinction in both the First Vermont and the Twelfth Vermont, and left the Army in July of 1863 as a Lieutenant Colonel. Following the war, Farnham became general counsel for the Vermont Copper Company and continued to work as both lawyer and administrator of the VCC for the rest of his life. In addition, he held a number of local and state political offices culminating in his defeat of Democrat Edward J. Phelps for the governorship of Vermont in 1880. After completing a single popular term as governor, Farnham returned to his law practice. In 1889 he also became president of the newly-formed New England Company, a group of Northern investors interested in developing the coal and iron deposits of northwestern Georgia. The New England Company was never a success, and Farnham spent much of the last decade of the nineteenth century trying to save it and the VCC from bankruptcy. Badly injured in a fall in November 1898, Farnham recovered sufficiently to resume some of his work but never regained full health. Roswell Farnham died at his home in Bradford on January 5, 1903, at the age of seventy-five. Three of Farnham’s four children lived to adulthood: Charles Cyrus Farnham (1864–1937), Florence Mary Osgood (1866–1958), and William M. Farnham (1869–1927). His first child, Roswell Phelps Farnham Jr., died in infancy in 1861. Farnham was predeceased by a half-brother, Cyrus C. Farnham, in 1863. Topics in this diary include the curriculum, faculty, and student experience at UVM in the late 1840s; Burlington and neighboring towns in the late 1840s, UVM’s Lambda Iota fraternity, Zachary Taylor and the Whig Party, and teaching in Vermont and Canada in the mid-nineteenth century. Near the end of the diary are several essays written by Farnham during his senior year at UVM. Topics in these essays include religion, natural history, and King Lear.
                    • Parent Collections: Diaries


                    Chester Way Diary, 1919
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                      • Creator: Way, Chester Murray, 1897-1973.
                      • Date Created: 1919
                      • Description: Chester Murray Way was born on November 12, 1897 to Harry Abel and Helen (Phelps) Way. He attended Burlington High School and later enrolled at the University of Vermont, graduating in 1922 with a degree in economics. During his time at UVM, Way was a member of the Alpha Lambda chapter of the Kappa Sigma fraternity, the Burlington chapter of the YMCA, and the editorial board for The Vermont Cynic. He also took part in UVM’s Student Army Training Corps, completing part of his service during the 1918 influenza pandemic. After college, Way ran a farm and became involved in several Vermont businesses, including the Green Mountain Mutual Fire Insurance Co. in Montpelier, the Fli-Rite School of Aviation in Swanton, and his father’s business, the Porter Screen Company, in Burlington. In 1944, Way purchased an inn in Middlebury, Vt. and renamed it the Waybury Inn; the inn was later used as a location for exterior shots for the television show Newhart. Way and his wife, Marjorie Holbrook Scott (m. 1928) were living in Middlebury at the time of Way’s death on October 4, 1973. Topics in Way’s diaries include the 1918-1919 influenza pandemic, fraternities at the University of Vermont, Kake Walk, World War One and UVM’s SATC program, Vermont farm life, and male friendships and relationships in the early twentieth century.
                      • Parent Collections: Diaries