What to do with old diaries and journals

I am an obsessive journal keeper and have been keeping journals since the 1970's. Sadly, most of my best thoughts now go into this blog which will no doubt fade like a January fog in the sunlight of time. I do my essaying here because typing is so much easier and faster than writing with a pen, especially now that I am old, 80, and my hands hurt and my wrist.

Probably the diaries are of no use to anyone because I am not and never will be famous, but I always think how I enjoyed the diaries of common folks which are, of course, much harder to come by. I am thinking of The Diary of a Midwife, an 18th century journal of the travels and travails of a midwife halping women give birth in all months of the year, terrible weather, and traveling by horse or canoe! I think of her because I know what it was like to experience the indescribable agony of labor pains and the terror. It feels as though your insides are being wrenched out by pliers. It is HORRIBLE, and to think of lone women in little cabins going through this ordeal without help is awful but to know that the midwife was there to help and assure them and to turn the baby if it was coming out in the wrong position, or if it was stuck, gives hope. It was the biggest killer of women before modern times. Women bled to death, died in horrific agony with the baby stuck inside, babies suffocated in their ordeal of trying to escape the womb - all kinds of terrors in that experience, but the midwife was there to use her wisdom and skill to rescue those poor souls. That midwife was an ancestor of the famous Clara Barton, and how wonderful that someone in each generation of that family was thoughtful and caring enough to save that diary from decade to decade until it became a book and eventually a film in the 20th century!

Another interesting little diary story was that of a young woman who dumpster dove to get some cool vintage clothing being tossed out an apartment window in an apartment clearance in New York City. In amongst the clothing she found a little red diary about a young woman in her twenties moving to New York City for the first time. She was a thoughtful finder and shared the treasure with her boyfriend who was also sensitive to historical documents and together they located the woman who had written the diary. She was an octagenarian living in Florida. The young couple wrote a book about the find and the return. I think it was called The Red Notebook. I had that book before I gave away all my books.

One of my favorites was a diary by a young farm wife in th 1700's in England and her cooking. She would prepare special favorites when she wanted to influence her husband in some decision. Her cooking descriptions were so alive, you could almost taste the things she made.

Of course, most people in the history world have been familiar with the Diary of Joseph Plum Martin, a young Revolutionary War soldier. I also read the diary of a Hessian soldier in America during the Revolution. I can't remember the title and the book is gone now. Maybe his surname was Dohla? Anyway another famous period diary is Joseph Fithian of Greenwich NJ and I have read it and visited his home territory and discussed it with the gracious man who volunteers at the Cumberland County Historical Society in Greenwich - a beautiful and historic town you should visit.

So, I looked up where someone could donate 20th century diaries and found: American Diary Project, "collecting, archiving and honoring" Kate Zirkle, founder americandiaryproject.com

and

The Gilder Lehrman Collection

www.gilderlehrman.org>collection

note, however, some collect only PUBLISHED diaries, but I think the first one ADP collects written ones.

I guess once I am gone, it doesn't really matter what happens to my diaries, I'll be gone and they are less than a shell, a husk, a shadow on concrete of the ME, but they are a record of an ordinary woman of the 20th century - a time of great change in general and for women in particular.

Happy Trails, wrightj45@yahoo.com