Category Archives: Diaries and Journals

A (Leap) Day in the Life: February 29

Posted on February 29, 2016 by kgmatheny | Posted in: Civil War, Diaries and Journals, Everyday Life, Letters, Newspapers, UA History | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

It’s been a while since we did a survey of Acumen‘s contents by taking a look at just one day. There have been fewer February 29ths than other days of the year, but, as with any other snapshot view, items from that date reveal a … Continue reading →

Food, Glorious Food!

Posted on June 19, 2015 by kgmatheny | Posted in: Diaries and Journals, Everyday Life, Newspapers, Scrapbooks | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

By guest blogger Alex Olkovsky, a graduate student in American Studies While many collections in our archives contain business and legal documents, there are also numerous focused on people’s daily and domestic lives. Unsurprisingly, these collections are where we can … Continue reading →

A Day in the Life: June 1

Posted on June 1, 2015 by kgmatheny | Posted in: Civil War, Diaries and Journals, Everyday Life, Letters, Photographs, World War I, World War II | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Here’s a slice of life from June 1st over the last 170 some-odd years, representing a cross-section of materials from the digital archive — from the serious to the silly, the magical to the mundane.

New and Notable in Acumen, Fall ’14 – Spring ’15

Posted on April 2, 2015 by kgmatheny | Posted in: Agriculture, Civil War, Diaries and Journals, Everyday Life, Foreign Language, Letters, Newly Online, Photographs, Scrapbooks, Southern History, World War I, World War II | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

A lot has come through the digitization pipeline in the last six months or so. Here are some highlights. Diaries Martha Jane Coleman Banks commonplace book Contains diary entries, miscellaneous writings (some appear to be school related), newspaper clippings, recipes, and … Continue reading →

Everyday mysteries of the archives

Posted on September 3, 2014 by kgmatheny | Posted in: Agriculture, Diaries and Journals, Letters, Small Collections, Southern History | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Part of the fun of looking through archival material is solving mysteries. When we don’t know much about the provenance of the collection –when there’s only the material itself to go on –that mystery is even more challenging, but potentially more fun. … Continue reading →

Hugh Davis farm journals, 1848-1880

Posted on November 5, 2013 by kgmatheny | Posted in: African-American History, Agriculture, Diaries and Journals, Southern History | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Hugh Davis (1811-1862) was an Alabama lawyer turned plantation owner. Being a learned man, his record books from the Beaver Bend farm are thorough and articulate, describing both day-to-day activities and overall running of farming operations, including the relationship between … Continue reading →

Newly Online: James A. Goble Civil War diary

Posted on October 9, 2013 by kgmatheny | Posted in: Civil War, Diaries and Journals, Newly Online, Southern History | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Sometimes our records of historical events come to us from ordinary and relatively unknown sources. All we know about James A. Goble is that he was a soldier in the First Alabama Infantry, and that while he was born in … Continue reading →

Battle of Chickamauga

Posted on September 19, 2013 by kgmatheny | Posted in: Civil War, Diaries and Journals | Tagged , | 4 Comments

“…I see a hog and black sheep dead. poor things they ought to keep away from where man meets in fearful combat. it is strange that the most intelligent beings on earth endowed with reason and sense cannot settle disputes … Continue reading →

Emmett Dendy WWII Air Mission Diary

Posted on July 31, 2013 by kgmatheny | Posted in: Diaries and Journals, Newly Online, World War II | Tagged , , , , | 3 Comments

One of our newest collections was donated by Emmett Dendy, a ball turret gunner in World War II. In the spring of 1945, he recorded 22 air missions in an Air Force Souvenir Handybook. Below is a typical entry: This … Continue reading →