The three diaries, written in reporters' notebooks, document Maud Gadow's experiences and encounters in the United States and Mexico while on expeditions with her husband, naturalist Hans Gadow. The first two diaries (volumes 1-2) trace the couple's eight-month journey from England on 16 March 1904 to the United States and Mexico until their departure in October 1904. The third volume begins in July 1908, when the Gadows are in Mexico, and follow their return to the United States as well as their departure to England in November 1908. When the Gadows arrive in the United States in March 1904, Hans meets colleagues and lectures across the country, including Princeton, Boston, New York, Chicago, and San Francisco. In late March of 1904 the Gadows are in Princeton, N.J., where they stay with professor William Earl Dodge Scott (1852-1910) and meet wildlife artist R. Bruce Horsfall (1869-1948). Maud describes Scott's home and the artist. In Boston Hans Gadow lectures at the Lowell Institute at Harvard University, and Maud describes meeting Abbott Laurence Lowell. Maud also records the homes where they stay and their train travels across the United States: they make stops in Middlesex Fells Reservation in Massachusetts, Niagara Falls, the Grand Canyon, Oakland, and San Francisco and ultimately arrive in Mexico City, Mexico in late May 1904. Gadow records the day-to-day hikes the couple makes with their entourage, which includes guides, helpers, pack mules, and horses. She writes of the villages, the native people, and the diplomacy needed to get the items the couple needs for the journey. Maud writes about setting up and breaking down the camps; the daily trials of the weather; illnesses; the landscape of the towns along southern Mexico and the Pacific Coast; seeking crocodiles and collecting animals and plant specimens; and tending to the parrots the couple has collected and her husband tending to lizards. Maud also details the kinds of animals they observe, such as tortoises and the many species of birds they see; the people they encounter; the permissions they need to travel in certain areas; and seeking suitable water. She talks of sketching vistas, some of which are included in Hans Gadow's 1908 book, Through Southern Mexico, Being an Account of the Travels of a Naturalist--a record of the couple's journeys through Mexico from 1902 and 1904. Both the 1904 and 1908 diaries record the Gadows' extensive travels throughout the United States and Mexico.
