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Boyce, Mary Elizabeth Pearson, 1820-1908. Diary, 1855 Sept. 28-1854 Nov. 2.

Title: Diary, 1855 Sept. 28-1854 Nov. 2.

Brief diary entries record daily events, visitors to Fonti Flora, illnesses of family and neighbors, weather conditions, births and deaths, church services attended, and travels by carriage and rail. Entries suggest the high standard of living enjoyed by members of the Fonti Flora household, with references to ornamental trees and game fowl purchased from nurseryman William Summer and visits by Mr. Hiller, a gardener employed to maintain the formal gardens. The diary also documents Mrs. Boyce's support for her husband's political career and her reading interests (books read during the course of the diary included, among others, Ann S. Stephens' Fashion and Famine, Ballou's History of Cuba, Goldsmith's Citizen of the World, James O. Andrews' Family Government, Alphonse de Lamartine's History of the Girondists, and Henkle's The Life of Henry Bidleman Bascom). Other activities represented include her manufacture of clothing for family and slaves; and events in the slave quarters: sicknesses, births, deaths, celebrations, efforts to save Addy's house from burning to the ground (5 Mar. 1855), and "Old Maum Diannah's [fu]neral sermon" (21 July 1855).

ArchivalResource: 1 v. ; 20 x 18 cm.

http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/36967582 View