Chloa Wellman Analysis

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Chloa Wellman was born in Grand Rapids, MI in 1890, and on February 4th, 1910 she despite that, “some superstitious people think it unlucky to start anything on a Friday,” decided to start writing a diary. Grand Rapids at this time still in the peak of it’s furniture boom and benefiting from a healthy economic atmosphere. I am interested in analysing this source in particular, because Chloa Wellman is my paternal great-grandmother and I too have been a 19 year-old young women living in Grand Rapids. In the dairy, Chloa records her daily life: events she attended, the health of friends and family, shows she enjoyed, and men who admired her. The nature of that the dairy as more of a simple record does not seems to have an overarching, driving argument, however it provides insight into the daily live and prominent concerns of a young woman at the turn of the century. The small tan bound book covered by a canvas or burlap material has a small loop on one side, probably for a writing utensil, although there is no utensil found with the diary. The pages are lined with thin, horizontal blue lines and 3 vertical thin red lines, on on the left and two to the right sides of the page, although the entries pay no attention to …show more content…

Although mine differs than her in style, through studying hers I realized I very rarely write about my family, nuclear or otherwise.. Although our two diaries are different in nature, there is difference in value that we share. For Chloa, her family is her main social circle and their health and happiness is one of her main concerns and so it is reflected in her diary. For myself, I focus more on the health and happiness of my peer group, as well as personal exploration. By comparing the two, a shift in values away from family and towards a more personal, independent self identity can be seen. That being said, we do both share the tendency to record popular cultural events in the same

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