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…
the margins. The first page of the diary is signed “Miss Chloa Wellman Feb 4” in pencil script, with the date “1910” written in red pencil below it. The entries are all in pencil, or in fountain pen, in relatively neat, cursive script on both sides of the page and all beginning with an abbreviated date. The almost daily entries finish on May 5th, 1910, with 34 entries taking up 17 front-to-back pages. I am examining either the complete original journal, or my own verbatim transcription which I finished back in 2013. The red penciled 1910 date on the front page might not be from the Chloa, or at least not as the same time, because red pencil is not found anywhere else in the diary, and the handwriting has questionable similarity. Aside from the unknown person who added ‘1910’ to the front page of the dairy, no one else is involved in creating the text. Chloa does not seem to make any alterations of marginal notes in her diary, so perhaps she never revisited the dairy after she wrote it, or at least had no intention of revising or commenting on the previous entries This is the only dairy I have from her from this year, however there are two other ‘yearbooks’ that she used in 1925 and 1932. The dairy was used by Chloa as daily record keeping tool rather than a place to explore thoughts and emotions on a deeper level. She uses “I” and refers to the dairy in a personal way, much like conversing with a close friend and reads closer to a ledger than a novel. Chloa usually wrote in the evening, and her account is as credible as anyone can be recalling their day at the end of it. Although towards the end of the dairy she starts writing once a week and the last few entries are shorter and lack detail. She never comments on future people reading her diary, or speculate that it would be around or used by anyone other than herself. The intended audience is herself, as she never mentions wanting to share the dairy with anyone. In fact, she lamentingly comments on the possibility someone else reading it, which shows that it was a place she could write freely without fear of judgement. A working class family status supported Chola’s relatively comfortable life. She never mentions facing any hardship or poverty, nor does her life seem to reflect abundant wealth, She mentions having a job, working as a secretary or assistance of some sort, mentioning “we girls” in reference to her office life and working on collections. She just seems to go about her daily life, working, spending time with her family and her friends, taking care of the family house. Multiple times throughout the diary, she records going to see picture shows and vaudeville acts, writing down the title, where she saw it, and her thoughts on the production. This aspect of the journal is useful to historians interested in studying popularity and commentary of shows at the time. Chloa writes mainly about family members and a few close friends. By far, she writes the most about a man named Glen who she either affectionately, or sourly, calls Rabbit. At one point she mentions how he lectured saying that she was foolish and had no sense, to which she replied with self proclaimed sarcasm, “that if he wanted to preach he had better being on an audience with some sense and not being on a foolish coward.” She finishes her retelling with, “the Rabbit cooled down and was very anxious to make an appointment for next Sun, and was careful not to forget a goodnight kiss. Oh, you Rabbit we will not call it square yet.” This anecdote provides insight into relationships between men and women at the time, or perhaps courting young people at the turn of the century. Chloa writes about him a bit differently than other people in her diary, with much more emotion. For everyone else, she tends to focus on recording people’s health and accomplishments. There is one point where she writes about a deaf-mute man coming into her office and she says that he, “tried to talk to me when I happened to look down there, but I made believe that I could not see hi”. Even though it seems like a small instance, it is hard not to judge her for ignoring him. Although people in fact still do this today when confronted with disabled people because they feel uncomfortable, it is not really considered socially acceptable. At one point, she mentions that it is election day and comments on the winner of the elections and her hope that he was a good choice. At this point in history she could not vote for two reasons: she was under 21 and she was a woman. I was hoping maybe that she would comment something about not having the right to vote, especially considering women’s suffrage movements at the time. Although, just because she did not comment on it that she did not have opinions about the subject. I, like my great-grandmother before me, have also kept a diary.
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
way. Chloa wanted to keep track of her daily life, a task that she accomplished well, regardless of the length of time she kept up with it. This source would be useful in understanding young women throughout history, and for understanding the daily life of someone living in Grand Rapids at the turn of the century. It is important for understanding values of a young women at this time too: family, health and emerging popular culture. Although there is value and information to be learned by the text itself, it is probably the most useful in conjunction with other primary and secondary sources, for example census data. Chloa’s effort to record her life represents valuable insight into life as a young woman. At the very least the dairy provides her descendants with genealogical information as well as a family heirloom to be dug out occasionally and enjoyed.
The two works of literature nudging at the idea of women and their roles as domestic laborers were the works of Zora Neale Hurston in her short story “Sweat”, and Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s short story “The Yellow Wallpaper”. Whatever the setting may be, whether it is the 1920’s with a woman putting her blood, sweat and tears into her job to provide for herself and her husband, or the 1890’s where a new mother is forced to stay at home and not express herself to her full potential, women have been forced into these boxes of what is and is not acceptable to do as a woman working or living at home. “Sweat” and “The Yellow Wallpaper” draw attention to suppressing a woman’s freedom to work along with suppressing a woman’s freedom to act upon her
"I had traveled much on the Kennebec, by water, by ice, and, during those treacherous seasons when the river was neither one nor the other, by faith" (e.g., A Midwife's Tale). Martha's diary is one of the few documents written by a woman that exist today and that describes the behavior, occupation, roles, and daily activities of a common society in the 18th century during and after the Revolution. Although she dedicates her whole life to help others and her family, the diary exposes a very different world with the very different community. Many other history documents lacked the problems of women and the lack of written documents by the female gender. Through this document, Martha gives the importance of women in the community and how they
Rollings-Magnusson begins in her introduction by explaining that her book “. . . details the findings of a study into the role that children’s work played in the operation of family farms in the western Canadian prairie region during the period of settlement between 1871 and 1913.” Rollings-Magnusson has gathered her information from various sources including: diaries, memoirs, letters, and poems of pioneer children as well as official records. While Heavy Burdens on Small Shoulders seems sometimes unnecessarily repetitive, it does contain some interesting and surprising information about the lives and labour of prairie children.
“I am a large, big boned woman with rough, man-working hands” Mama describes of herself in the short story Everyday Use by Alice Walker. Mama, who additionally takes the role of narrator, is a lady who comes from a wealth of heritage and tough roots. She is never vain, never boastful and most certainly never selfish. She speaks only of her two daughters who she cares deeply for. She analyzes the way she has raised them and how much she has cared too much or too little for them, yet most of all how much they value their family. Mama never speaks of herself, other than one paragraph where she describes what she does. “My fat keeps me hot in zero weather. I can work outside all day, breaking ice to get water for washing” (Walker, 60). She does not need to tell readers who she is, for her descriptions of what she does and how her family interacts, denotes all the reader needs to know. Although Mama narrates this story rather bleakly, she gives readers a sense of love and sense of her inner strength to continue heritage through “Everyday Use”.
Dayton, Ohio has a well known history that stretches back for Centuries. Sometimes, you take for granted the history of where you were born, but if you take a time line and look back, its clear to see how important it was to reflect on the different stages of triumph and victory that certain historical places like the one that will be talked about in this paper, that is The Woman’s Club. (This historical site) The Woman’s Club has been around for decades, and has been a very important tool for the history of Dayton. The history of this Club includes the survival of the Dayton flood and also the Great Depression which was around the 1930’s. You may think that The Woman’s Club was just for women but they did help men in some ways too but rooming was specifically, mostly only for women during the time when they rented rooms for overnight stay. An interesting fact about The Woman’s Club is that they have a ghost in their basement. Inside the basement there is a bar and this is where the men came to get a beverage. Going up into the main hall which is the historical part of the building where there is a wooden structure that is so beautiful and has a classical design to it. The history still lives in this beautiful structured building today. If the first owner of this beautiful structured place was still alive (Robert Steele) today, he probably would be happy to know that his classical, unique structured building was built for good use today and that people still value the history of The Woman’s Club as though it is something to remember. Today, The Woman’s Club is very important to Dayton because of its’ long lasting history. The history of The Woman’s Club starts out as the beginning of a brand new home, Robert Steele’s home who...
Until their deciphering in the 1980’s, the diaries of eighteenth century landowner Anne Lister were an unknown tome of lesbian history. Written largely in a cipher of Lister’s conception, The Secret Diaries of Miss Anne Lister detail not only her day to day routine and superficial social interactions, but also the complexities of her romantic and sexual relationships with women, precise tailoring of her appearance, harassment she faced due to her gender non-conformity, and biting commentary on those in her social circles. Contained in plain hand, legible to anyone who may have come across Lister’s diaries with prying eyes, is documentation of her life in both York and Halifax such as the day’s weather, meals she took with neighboring families,
Mary Flannery O’Connor was born in Savannah, Georgia in 1925 into one of the oldest and most prominent Catholic families in Georgia. She was the only child of Edward, a real estate appraiser, and Regina O’Connor. The year after the family moved to Milledgeville in 1940, Flannery’s father contracted and died of lupus. She and her father had always had a close relationship, and 15-year-old Flannery was devastated (Gordon). Catholicism was always a huge aspect of life for the O’Connor family, living across the street from a cathedral and growing up in the Bible Belt (Liukkonen). Flannery attended parochial schools until entering the Georgia State College for Women, where she entered into an accelerated three-year program as a day student (Gordon). She graduated with a Social Sciences degree in 1945 and left Milledgeville for the State University of Iowa where she had been accepted in Paul Engle’s prestigious Writers Workshop. (“Flannery O’Connor”). Flannery devoted herself to what she loved most, writing, though she spent a great deal of her youth drawing pictures for a career as a cartoonist (Liukkonen). It was at this ...
Glaspell authored this feminist short story, now considered a classic and studied in many institutions of higher education, in 1917, a story that underwent reawakening in the 1970s (Hedges). As the investigation of Mr. Wright’s murder takes the sheriff of Dickson County, neighbor Mr. Hale, and their wives to the Wright farm, the story “confines itself to the narrow space of Minnie’s kitchen--- the limited and limiting space of her female sphere. Within that small space are revealed all of the dimensions of the loneliness that is her mute message” (Hedges). It is evident through Glaspell’s writing that Minnie Wright feels distress from being trapped in the confines of her kitchen with no telephone and no outreach to the world outside her husband’s farm. Mrs. Wright being quarantined to her own home every day--- a common occurrence in housewives of ...
“Yes there is no doubt that paper is patient and as I don't intend to show this cardboard- covered notebook, bearing the proud name of “diary”, to anyone, unless I find a real friend, boy or girl, probably nobody cares. And now I come to the root of the matter, the reason for my starting a diary: it is that I have no such real friend.” Anne Frank divulges that she wants her diary to be a friend to her unlike her other friends, she feels isolated and alone sometimes, and wants her diary to be someone she can talk to openly and honestly about everything. So she calls her diary “Kitty” and addresses it as her friend. Anne was often emotional and insecure of herself. She felt as though she didn't have any true confidants, which led her to feel lonely and misunderstood. “I hope I will be able to confide everything to you, as a great source of comfort and support.”
Kessler, Carol Parley. "Charlotte Perkins Gilman 1860 -1935." Modem American Women Writers. Ed. Elaine Showalter, et al. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1991. 155 -169.
Her parents meet at a social gathering in town and where married shortly thereafter. Marie’s name was chosen by her grandmother and mother, “because they loved to read the list was quite long with much debate over each name.” If she was a boy her name would have been Francis, so she is very happy to have born a girl. Marie’s great uncle was a physician and delivered her in the local hospital. Her mother, was a housewife, as was the norm in those days and her father ran his own business. Her mother was very close with her parents, two brothers, and two sisters. When her grandmother was diagnosed with asthma the family had to move. In those days a warm and dry climate was recommended, Arizona was the chosen state. Because her grandma could never quite leave home, KY, the family made many trips between the states. These trips back and forth dominated Marie’s childhood with her uncles and aunts being her childhood playmates.
Anne Frank's personal piece of writing, “Diary of A Young Girl” tells the story of a young girl transitioning to womanhood during the second world war. Along her journey, she uses her diary as a tool for getting rid of her emotional and mental stress. She faces the challenges of becoming a young adult with fellow residents at the Secret Annex, including her sister Margot. Like most girls, her relationship with her sister is bitter - full of conflict and eventually some understanding. Anne deals with her relationship with Margot by writing diary entries because she wants to vent her feelings of frustration, admiration, and jealousy.
How different are families compared to the past? Lately there has been some major changes in relationships, weather female dominance, or even just having no relationships at all. We also see that relationships are based only on a basis of reproduction and sometimes the child of the relationship is rather irrelevant. In a Temporary matter by Jhumpa Lahiri, the reader can see how relationships have developed with the rest of the world into failing, no relationship, and feminist relationships.
Do you remember when your sister used to write in her diary and how curious you were on finding out what she wrote in it? If you didn’t have a sister – do you remember keeping your own diary hoping that your mom would not find it one day and read it? At a young age, we all learn to keep a diary or journal. In elementary school, we may have been required to write in a journal in class replying to a question asked by the teacher like “How was your weekend?” or “How was your break?” Simple questions were asked to help generate ideas in our young minds and help us write our own story. But now that we are older, do we still have the opportunity to write our own story the same way we used to? Are we still able to release our emotions and reflect on events in our lives? Though many people see keeping a journal as childish or a waste of time, the effects of recording ones thoughts are beneficial.
I slowly opened the front door -- the same old creak echoed its way throughout the old house, announcing my arrival just seconds before I called out, "Grandma!" She appeared around the corner with the normal spring in her steps. Her small but round 5'1" frame scurried up to greet me with a big hug and an exclamation of, "Oh, how good to see you." It was her eighty-fifth birthday today, an amazing feat to me, just part of everyday life to her. The familiar mix of Estee Lauder and old lotion wafted in my direction as she pulled away to "admire how much I've grown." I stopped growing eight years ago, but really, it wasn't worth pointing this fact out. The house, too, smelled the same as it's ever smelled, I imagine, even when my father and his brothers grew up here more than forty years ago -- musty smoke and apple pie blended with the aroma of chocolate chip cookies. The former was my grandfather's contribution, whose habit took him away from us nearly five years ago; the latter, of course, comes from the delectable delights from my grandmother's kitchen. Everything was just as it should be.