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Sarah Evelyn (Baylor) Blackford diary
Call number: Mss1 B5645 b 14

"The whole hall would be darkened, and then you would hear a click clack, and the picture would appear on the sheet." Sarah Evelyn (Baylor) Blackford diary entry dated, February 13, 1897

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Diary of John Stevens and Buckner Randolph
Call number: Mss1 R1586 b 162

August 29, 1862
"Started in the morning and went to Centerville and then to the old field of Bull Run."
∼John Stevens, 6th New Hampshire Infantry, U.S.A.

August 30, 1862
"Fought battle of Manassas, wasn’t much engaged. This book taken from a Yankee on yesterday."
∼Buckner Randolph, 49th Virginia Infantry, C.S.A.

Divided in opinion, their words are bound together. This diary is written in both a Union and Confederate hand. John Stevens came to Virginia attached to the 6th New Hampshire. His diary recounted his activities ("driled [sic] in the morning" and "male [sic] from home"), his travels, "left Hattras [sic] Inlet at noon and went a board [sic] the steam boat," and the weather, "snowed about a ninch [sic] and a half." His last entry was written on August 29, 1862. John Stevens's life ended on the battlefield of Second Bull Run, but his journal took on a new life. Buckner Randolph of the 49th Virginia Infantry picked up the journal and recorded his daily events in the months that followed. His entries are somewhat lengthier and both his handwriting and spelling suggest he received more education than Stevens.

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Diary of Raphael Semmes chronicling his itinerary in Europe, summer 1864
Call number: Mss1 Se535 a 167

"Did the Rigi [mountain in Swiss Alps]. Sunrise a humbug."
"Paris, where we remained a week and did the city."
"19 of Sep. and on at Home Sweet Home."

Captain of the CSS Alabama, Raphael Semmes suffered a tremendous loss in June of 1864 when the USS Kearsage sank the Alabama off the coast of Cherbourg, France. Wounded in the battle, Semmes and 41 of his crewmates were rescued by a British yacht, and Semmes returned to England to recover. Despite losing the Alabama, Semmes was regaled as a hero. During the summer of 1864, he left London with a party of five and journeyed through Europe. In a diary, no larger than a house key and made of ivory, Semmes penciled brief notations of his travels. This diary was then presented to Louisa Tremlett, a member of his traveling party.

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"A band of Nazi’s just we[nt] by singing." Bradford Wasserman diary entry dated August 20, 1933, Berlin
Call number: Mss5:1 W2848:1

July 17, 1933 (Aboard the SS Georgic, White Star Line)
“We have to wear blue neckerchiefs through Germany because that big sissy Hitler doesn’t allow red to be worn. He is utsna. [nuts in pig Latin]"

July 23, 1933 (Aboard the SS Georgic)
"The interpiter [sic] thinks it is awful that my father came from Russia and I can’t talk Jewish. He is crazy."

July 30, 1933 (Munich)
"I saw some small boys in the Nazi uniform"

This is perhaps the only diary in the VHS collections with words written in pig Latin. In the summer of 1933, fifteen-year-old Bradford Wasserman left Richmond, Virginia, and traveled to the International Boy Scout Jamboree in Godollo, Hungary. Much of his time at the jamboree was spent visiting camps from the different nationalities (frequently visiting those from Palestine, Egypt, and Australia) and trading for badges. On his way to and from Hungary, Wasserman, who was Jewish, traveled through Nazi Germany.

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