Just 150 years ago today on Saturday afternoon, February 16, 1861, President-Elect Abraham Lincoln met twelve-year-old Grace Bedell on a train platform in Westfield, New York. Showing off his new facial hair, he kissed the young girl and reportedly said, ““You see I have let these whiskers grow for you, Grace.” If you know this […]
16
Feb
11
Lincoln Meets Grace Bedell
Posted by Matthew Pinsker Published in Antebellum (1840-1861), Letters & Diaries1 comment
12
Nov
10
Cornelia Peake McDonald Journal
Posted by sailerd Published in Civil War (1861-1865), Letters & DiariesWinchester, Virginia in the Shenandoah Valley was arguably the most contested town of the Civil War. Depending on how you count, the community changed hands over seventy times during four years. Several women kept diaries, wrote remarkable letters or crafted post-war reminiscences. One of the best hybrid collections (part-diary/ part-recollection) comes from Cornelia Peake McDonald […]
9
Nov
10
Kate Stone was twenty-years-old when Fort Sumter fell to Confederate forces. She was thrilled. Stone was an ardent southern nationalist from Louisiana who lived on a large plantation (Brokenburn) with many slaves and an extended family, including at least two brother who would die in the Confederate army. Within a month after Sumter, Stone began […]
29
Sep
10
White Hall School – Camp Hill, PA
Posted by sailerd Published in Civil War (1861-1865), Images, Places to VisitOn Thanksgiving day in November 1863 two children whose fathers were killed during the Civil War went to the executive mansion in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania and asked for food. Apparently this experience inspired Governor Andrew Curtin to ask the Pennsylvania legislature to establish an organization to care for orphans of Union soldiers. While legislators did not […]
24
Jul
10
The Courtship of James Garfield
Posted by hardyr Published in Antebellum (1840-1861), Letters & DiariesIn 1847, Zeb and Arabella Rudolph decided that their daughter Lucretia needed more of an academic challenge than the local Garrettsville, Ohio, schools could offer. The fifteen-year old was sent twenty miles away to board at the Geauga Seminary, where she would have the benefit of a classical curriculum. The Geauga Seminary was coeducational, and […]
19
Feb
10
Robert C. Caldwell Collection
Posted by sailerd Published in Civil War (1861-1865), Letters & DiariesThe Robert C. Caldwell Collection at East Carolina University offers an interesting perspective on life in the South during the Civil War. The collection consists primarily of Robert Caldwell’s letters to his wife between August 1863 and February 1865. He served with the 10th Battalion North Carolina Heavy Artillery, which remained in eastern North Carolina […]
12
Feb
10
Delia Locke Diaries (1855-1879)
Posted by sailerd Published in 19th Century (1840-1880), Images, Letters & DiariesWhen Delia Locke and her husband moved to northern California in 1855, she started a diary that she continued to write in until her death in 1922. Thanks to the University of the Pacific, her diary entries between 1855 and 1879 are available online. Locke not only recorded detailed observations about daily life, but she […]
22
Jan
10
The University of Maryland has an interesting collection of sixty two letters from a family who lived in Maryland during the Civil War. This project consists primarily of Tillie Farquhar Sterling’s correspondence with her mother, which can provide an interesting look into daily life in Maryland between 1862 and 1864. Other letters in the collection […]
9
Dec
09
Immigration to the United States
Posted by sailerd Published in 19th Century (1840-1880), Images, Letters & Diaries, Maps, Rare BooksHarvard University’s Immigration to the United States, 1789-1930, which is available through their Open Collections Program, is a great resource that offers interesting primary sources that one cannot easily find elsewhere. This collection offers a wide range of material, including photographs, manuscripts, and books and pamphlets. While the focus is on immigration between 1789 and […]
10
Nov
09
The University of Virginia Library has an old exhibit on Southern women in the Civil War that is still accessible online. This exhibit is very well organized into categories that represent major concerns that occupied women on the home front before, during, and after the war. Under each category, the narrative is presented using a […]
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