Elizabeth Albee Brooks Diary .03 Cubic Feet 1 letter folder
- Creator
- Whitmore Rare Books
- Abstract Or Scope
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This collection contains the diary of Elizabeth Albee Brooks (1828-1869) from 1865. Brooks was an artist in training who lived in Medford, Massachusetts. The diary has an inscription in the front endpaper that reads "With many happy new years from her loving Auntie. Medford." The diary contains 124 entries handwritten in pencil graphite. It documents and gives insights into the experiences of adult, single women in suburban Northern communities as the Civil War came to a close. The diary documents her life, the resumption of art classes, notes of appointments with friends to attend performances, exhibits, and lectures, and grappling with a decision to travel to California with her brother Charlie or not. She notes friends having babies, losing husbands to the war. She also notes her travel which increases with the end of the war. Which includes trips to Boston, New York, and Newport, Rhode Island. Notable events in her diary include attending the Unitarian Convention of 1865 and the assassination of President Lincoln which she notes on April 15, which marked significant changes for her personally and nationally.
- Collection Context