1890 Standard Diary
This might seem kind of odd for someone who spends thousands of dollars on old paper each year (apologies, it’s tax time.). But I rarely read the items that I collect.
So, for instance, I bought this 1890 pocket-sized diary from a very nice gentleman in one of my ephemera groups. I got it in the mail a few days later and eagerly flipped through it. It’s full of interesting facts and the information that people wanted in their pockets 136 years ago. Interest rates. Phases of the moon. Values of foreign coins. Poisons and their antidotes. Things that you couldn’t just Ask Jeeves back then.
But I didn’t read a single entry, just stored it away to cut up for a collage someday. I’m not sure why I don’t read any of the letters and diaries that I buy. It might be because it feels too personal? I buy these things for what they are, not what they say.
I suspect the entries inside are ordinary. Weather. Errands. Illness. The small rhythms of everyday life.
But that’s exactly what makes objects like this so appealing. Even without reading a word, you can feel the presence of the person who once carried it.
