Historic Children's Voices

Curators reading manuscripts

Historic Children's Voices provides an important window into how young writers in the nineteenth century recorded their daily lives, wrote stories and poetry, expressed their beliefs and values, and commented on cultural changes of the time. On this site, researchers can view the digital library of diaries, newspapers, and books, as well as discover additional research tools and recordings of past programs to explore children's lives more deeply. Teachers will find a variety of guides and lesson plans to help bring the past to life for their students.

Primary Sources Digital Library

Displaying 1 - 26 of 26
Image Title Location Date Format Transcription
Charles Herbert Wiggin diary, 1859-1860 Massachusetts 1859 Diaries ✓
Edmund Quincy Sewall Jr. diary, 1840 Massachusetts 1840 Diaries ✓
Cover of Gerogiana Barrow's diary Elizabeth Stalker Jeffers diary, 1863-1864 Massachusetts 1863 Diaries ✓
Emily Talbot Keller diary, 1858-1859 Maine 1858 Diaries ✓
Esther "Ettie" R. Harlow diary, 1860-1861 Massachusetts 1860 Diaries
Francis Alvarez Hartley Nash 1852 Diaries
Cover of Francis Bennett's diary Francis Bennett, Jr. diary, 1852-1854 Massachusetts 1852 Diaries
Cover of Gerogiana Barrow's diary Georgiana Souther Barrows diary, 1842 Maine 1842 Diaries
A handwritten page from this diary Grenville Howland Norcross diaries, 1860-1875 Massachusetts 1860 Diaries ✓
Cover of Anna Gale's diary Hannah "Anna" Davis Gale diary, 1837-1838 Rhode Island 1837 Diaries
Harriet Foster Hawes diary, 1865 Vermont 1865 Diaries ✓
Cover of Henry Martindell's diary Henry Augustus Martindell diary, 1869 New Jersey 1869 Diaries
J. N. Currier diary, 1867 or 1895. New Hampshire 1867 Diaries
James Ferdinand Fiske diary, 1857-1860 Massachusetts 1857 Diaries
Title page of James Whittier's diary James Lawrence Whittier diary, 1830-1831 Massachusetts 1830 Diaries
Cover of Josiah Bassett's diary Josiah Gardner Bassett notebook, 1864 Massachusetts 1864 Diaries
Cover of Julia Dodge's diary Julia M. Dodge diary, 1871 Massachusetts 1871 Diaries ✓
Title page of Kenneth Allen's diary Kenneth Allen diary, 1874 Massachusetts 1874 Diaries
Louisa Jane Trumbull diary, 1829-1837 Massachusetts 1829 Diaries ✓
Page of Minnie Allen's diary Marion Boyd Allen diary, 1875-1876 Massachusetts 1875 Diaries ✓
Cover of Percival Bonney's diary Percival Bonney diary, 1859-1861 Maine 1859 Diaries
Ruth Henshaw Bascom diary, 1789-1793 Massachusetts 1789 Diaries ✓
Sally Ripley diary, 1799-1801 Massachusetts 1799 Diaries ✓
First page of Samuel Bartlett Parris diary Samuel Bartlett Parris diary, 1817 Massachusetts 1817 Diaries
Walter Goodrich diary, 1846 Maine 1846 Diaries
First page of William Hoppin diary William Jones Hoppin diary, 1821 Rhode Island 1821 Diaries