Diaries and Journals

This collection consists primarily of the diary of Esther Popel Shaw (Class of 1919), the first African American woman to graduate from Dickinson College.  Esther kept this diary between the conclusion of her junior year in high school on June 10, 1914 and April 30, 1915 of her senior year.  The diary entries document her daily activities, particularly her interactions with family, friends, and neighbors. Esther routinely listed the names of the individuals she met each day and the people with whom she corresponded.  She also included accounts of her school days, the books she was reading, the lectures and social events she attended, and her membership in a basketball team named the Philanders.  It was during this time that Esther self-published her first collection of poetry, titled Thoughtless Thinks by a Thinkless Thoughter, which she sold to establish a college fund.  The diary traces the evolution of this publication, which was printed on February 26, 1915.  A transcription of this diary is housed with this collection. 

In addition to the diary, this collection includes a newspaper clipping from the July 20, 1954 Baltimore Afro-American newspaper that features a profile of Esther’s retirement activities. 

George Edward Reed II (1912-1998) graduated from Dickinson College in 1935. This collection contains journals that document his service during World War II. The journals include diary entries, which start in June 1941 and end in November 1945. The journals also include correspondence, photographs, news clippings, and ephemera.

James Gordon Steese (1882-1958) was a member of the Dickinson College class of 1902. Among his many activities, Steese served as president of the Board of Road Commissioners for Alaska; the Steese Highway in Alaska is named for him. He later was involved with the development of railroads in both Alaska and Maryland and with several oil companies. Diaries and journals chronicle Steese's military service and his later years. The collection contains mostly professional correspondence, pamphlets, and reports on the Alaskan Road Commission and Steese's military service. Also included are several newspaper articles, maps, charts, and correspondence with Steese's family. A large photograph collection, mainly in the form of photo albums, supplements the document collection.

Ruth Agnes Trout graduated from Dickinson College with the class of 1936. In 1983, she and her sister, Helen Elizabeth Trout, established the Trout Gallery at the college in honor of their parents, Brook and Mary Agnes Cook Trout. This collection of papers documents Trout's relationship with the college, primarily as an alumna. It contains correspondence with college officials and financial documents that particularly emphasize her support of the Trout Gallery. This collection also includes a record of her family's history back to approximately the Civil War. Family-related materials include correspondence, genealogical materials, photographs, legal and financial documents, and memorabilia from important life events. Surnames represented in the collection include Brindle, Cook, Dale(s), McCall, Ritter, Stringer, and Trout.

Paul Walker (1896-1985) was a 1921 graduate of Dickinson College and a longtime contributing editor and columnist with the Harrisburg Patriot-News; his column "Roundabout" appeared for over ten years. This collection is comprised of diaries, commonplace books, newspaper articles and other materials donated by Mrs. Paul R. Walker in 1985.

The collection contains papers of Ferdinand de Wilton Ward (1812-1891) concerning the Central Church in Geneseo, New York, the American Bible Society, and the genealogy of the Ward family. Also in the collection are a journal of Ward's voyage to India in 1837 and a letter book of the Indian mission.

The Anthony Wayne collection consists of four notebooks kept by Anthony, Charles, and Isaac Wayne. The two notebooks belonging to Anthony Wayne, dated 1762 to 1764, contain notes on mathematics and surveying; the notebook of Charles Wayne also includes notes on mathematics. Isaac Wayne's notebook includes his financial accounts as well as brief journal entries of his activities. Some loose notes are also among Isaac's papers.

This collection consists of nine scrapbooks relating to John Perry Wood (1879-1959), Dickinson College class of 1901 and Yale University School of Law class of 1902, and his family. Most of the scrapbooks deal with aspects of family life: correspondence between family members, and memorials to those who had passed away. This collection also contains the diary of Martha Wood from the year 1880 and an album of unlabeled photographs from the late 19th century to approximately 1950 containing only the names of Ernest C. Jones and Charlotte Traweek.

These records document the activity and organization of the Zatae Longsdorff's Women's Center, a feminist organization at Dickinson that included student and faculty members.