The Diary Of Lorenzo Greene

At the end of May (1930) Woodson suggested that I take a two-week vacation, then come in and talk with him upon my return. Having completed the study of Negro Employment in the District of Columbia, I aws happy to leave for New York.

The Gazette Girls of Grundy County

The first problem was to find a paper we could buy with a down payment of $500.00 and a debt of not more than $1,500.00. That would leave us with a few hundred for operating expenses until we “started making a profit.” We knew we wanted a Linotype machine, since setting type by hand, as some country newspapers of that eara were still doing, would leave us little time to write, interview, and pursue the more interesting phases of newspaper work.

The World War I Diary of Charles Ponton

INTRODUCTION:

How the world fell into the catastrophe of World War I will always be something of a mystery. It was a war with neither clear issues nor simple villains. Perhaps the ultimate cause was the rulers themselves, and their greed and vanity as quaintly ludicrous as the gilded eagle sprouting from the top of the war-helmet crown of Kaiser Wilhelm II. The ambitious Kaiser and his government wer emore to blame than others, but the leadership cultures of Europe, and the behavior of European governments, had much in common in 1914. The Germans were hardly in a class by themselves.

A Pickpocket’s Tale: The Autobiography of George Appo

George Appo was no ordinary criminal. Forgotten by the time of his death in 1930, Appo was a quintessential underworld celebrity in nineteenth-century New York City. He grew up in poverty, supported himself by picking pockets, became an opium addict, engaged in counterfeiting schemes, and was incarcerated for over a decade in five different prisons. In 1894, his tales of police corruption before an investigative committee generated not only front-page attention in the penny press, but earned him hatred int he underworld. Perhaps most extraordinary, George Appo wrote an autobiography.

The Spanish American War Journal of Amy Wingreen

I have come to care for the sick on the transport and also have in my charge a very sick nurse. She was ill on the boat going to Cuba and has been ever since, and if she ever gets home alive she will do well. I have not been on deck at all, and not a tinge of seasickness, though the boat has tossed a good deal. The things in our state room slip and slide around, and I after them. I look out now and then and catch a glimpse of the sweeping sea and smell the ocean air and long for a billow to spray me. My prayer was, when I was so ill at Siboney, that I might rather be buried at sea, but better still, that I might be privileged to land on American soil again.

LAND FEVER:The Downfall of Robert Morris

SPECULATION MANIA said the headline of a boston newspaper in 1790. The speculative nature of Americans was widely commented upon during the early years of the Republic, both by Americans themselves and by visitors from abroad.

Around the Horn: The Journal of a Voyage to San Francisco

On January 24, 1848, gold was discovered at Sutter’s Mill on the American River near Coloma, California. When news of the strike reached the East it precipitated the first and greatest Gold Rush; the entire nation was soon in the …

Diary of Lydia Rudd —1852

Diaries kept by women taking part in the pioneer westward movement of 1840-1870 were often sent back east to be used as guides by family members intending to make the same journey. Surviving until the late twentieth century, they became guides by which we can understand in sometimes poignant, sometimes monotonous detail, the lives of families caught up in a momentous period of American history.

The Road to California

Tuesday May 22nd. There is considerable sickness on the road–some in our own company. The Mormons passed on. Palmer’s Company remained and buried Mr. George Thompson, who died with cholera. Several fresh graves here. Our company now consists of seventeen wagons, 51 men and 21 ladies. It is divided into messes for convenience…

The 4A Shuffle

“Howell, I’m not here to punish you. Life will pubish you enough.” –Captain Roberto Cuesta

A Conversation with Esther Jane Rohrer

“What was life like in rural Missouri at the turn of the century?”

Steele’s Modoc Question

Dear Brother, at your request I subjoion a brief statement of my recollection, knowledge, and intercourse with the Indians since my leaving the east in the spring of 1850. Crossing the plains that summer, whilst suffering much with other immigrants by short feed for my stock and loss of supplies in our train, I had no trouble with the Indians. Others did, but I saw or thought a cause was with themselves or with some that had shortly preceded them…

For Our Beloved Country: The Diary of a Bugler

In the fall of 1861 I caught the disease called war fever, which was spreading very rapidly about that time, and if once fairly seated it is hard to be cured, no matter how much doctoring you have done. In November I applied at the recruiting office of the 24th Massachusetts Volunteers to make one of that regiment. I signed my name to the roll, then was told to make the surgeon a visit for inspection. I found him all ready to receive visitors, so I pulled off my dry goods and he made an examination.