Manuscripts

Mary Richardson travel diaries

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Description: Collection of four diaries kept by Mary Richardson, a cousin of English critic and artist John Ruskin, documenting travel primarily in France and Italy, between 1833 and 1841, with the Ruskin family, including John Ruskin. Richardson often describes the sites they visited, her perceptions, and the daily activities of the family during their tours of Europe. The volumes consist of a diary of travel chiefly in Italy, from May-September 1833 (HM 41910); a diary of travel chiefly in France from June 4-August 25, 1835 (HM 41911); a diary of travel in Rome and Naples from December 22, 1840, to March 11, 1841 (HM 41912); and a diary of travel in Italy from March 14-June 23, 1841 (HM 41913). The collection also contains one additional volume: a diary and appointment book of an unidentified individual, presumably a young man, in London, England, in 1849 (HM 41914).
Type: Manuscripts(Opens in new tab)
Production date: 1833-1849.
Call number: mssHM 41910-41914

Thomas Richardson diary

Manuscripts

This diary was compiled by descendants of Thomas Richardson in 1838 and contains extracts of the letters, journals, and memoranda of Richardson from between 1780 and 1794. Thomas Richardson documented daily life in a prosperous Quaker household and records observations about education, religion, natural philosophy, abolitionism, and domestic medicine. There are accounts of electrical experiments and electrotherapeutic treatments conducted by the family, including a 1786 description of the Richardson family attempting to revive a recently dead woman using electric shocks. The diary also includes examples of children's writing, education, and intellectual life in late eighteenth-century England. The volume is written in a single copyist's hand and is bound in contemporary marbled paper over boards.

mssHM 84540

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Western travel diary

Manuscripts

Travel diary by an unknown author documenting a train trip across the United States from Massachusetts to Yellowstone National Park and ending in Cleveland, Ohio. The diary is accompanied by a complete transcript.

mssHM 83423

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Mary Haskin Parker Richards diary

Manuscripts

Typescript of a diary kept by Mary Haskin Parker Richards while her husband Samuel Richards was on his mission to Great Britain from 1846-1848. The diary begins on July 22, 1846 (the first four pages are missing), while Mary was traveling with Samuel's parents in a covered wagon through Iowa. Despite the hardships of travel and living much of the time in tents, Mary writes of enjoying her sewing, cooking, and caring for ill family members. She writes of attending a council between the Twelve and "the Natives," which included "10 Indians [and] two Chiefs" in December 1846. In February 1847 Mary ventured across the frozen Missouri River and stayed in an Indian village. She recounts seeing Mormons and Indians living side-by-side although not always peacefully. She happily recounts moving into a house in April 1847 for the first time since leaving Nauvoo in May 1846. "I rejoiced to think that after...living in a tent, and wandering from house to house to keep from perishing with the Cold, [and] suffering...every inconvenience...I had once more a place I could call my home," she wrote on April 29. Much of the diary is taken up with notes on Mary's domestic activities and her attendance of lectures and apparently fiery sermons by Mormon leaders. The final entry was made on May 14, 1848. There is a gap in the diary from August to November 1846.

mssHM 27970

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Mary Arbeely diary

Manuscripts

Mary Arbeely wrote this diary during the final months of the family's Beirut trip (1908, November 17-1909, September 30).

mssHM 83424

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Richard C. Backus travel diary

Manuscripts

The travel diary documents Richard C. Backus' road trip from New York to Los Angeles with typewritten notes and labeled photographs. The diary includes details regarding their trip and the various people and places they visited along the way through Illinois, Kansas, Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona, and California. The typewritten notes include details about miles driven, car trouble and repairs (the group traveled in three vehicles), and road and weather conditions. The diary also includes a hand-drawn map of the group's driving route.

mssHM 84014

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Mary Olive Karr Gilkey diary

Manuscripts

The diary begins in October 1877 when Mary, at the age of 12, is in Tumwater, Washington on her way to Olympia; it is here that she decides that she is going to start keeping a diary. The diary then skips to July 1884 when Mary is a teacher in Scappoose, Oregon. She discusses her students, her feelings for a man she refers to as "C.J.," and her continuing effort to be a good Christian woman. In October she moves back to Forest Grove, Oregon to be with her family, the Karrs and Walkers. While there, she spends her time attending prayer meetings and catching up with her family. She also takes a trip to Portland where she attends a reception for a missionary friend; she briefly talks of becoming a missionary herself, but decides to return to school instead. The last entry is August 9, 1885, and Mary is back at home after deciding to leave school

mssHM 64595

Mary Richardson travel diaries

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Thomas Richardson diary

Western travel diary

Mary Haskin Parker Richards diary

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