1894-1910 IOWA DIARY. 21 Volumes, 300,000 Word Diary. Dead-Ringer for the Music Man!

An absolutely delightful and apparently unbroken run of highly detailed and culturally contextualized late 19^th century and early 20th century Iowa / Nebraska / Illinois diaries.

Extending from 1894 through 1910 in 21 volumes, these unresearched diaries contain approximately 14,400 words each, and there are 21 of them, making this a fantastic period memoir of extending to just over 300,000 words.

The diaries are the work of a young Iowan, one Sayde Neely, b.1872. At the beginning of the diaries she is just 21 years of age, lives with her folks and apparently is already described as an "old maid."

The whole thing reads like a background memoir for a character in the Music Man. She attends masquerade parties, sings with friends around the piano at night, gets courted by a traveling salesman, and so forth. Then, she moves to Galesburg, Illinois to attend Knox Conservatory and tries to pursue a career in music, etc., It just feels like Harold Hill will stroll in at any moment. 

The diaries themselves are excellent. She's an incredibly chatty writer, often breaking into extended descriptions of a particular party, local affair, etc., We have only just scratched the surface with a couple volumes below.

Extended, full diary runs of the period like this are getting very difficult to find and form an important piece of social background of the period, especially in this case, the challenges of a single woman in a mid-western small town. 

Just a few items of the two years we flipped through include: 

1894 [2vols]. World’s Fair, jolly time practicing “Chicago Street Cries” with her friends, choir practices, making cocoa and sausage and ham, she is elected secretary of the Sunday School, church service with Captain O’Brien, sewing and crocheting, lengthy entry of being woken up to giant red flames from a fire in town, extensive account of “powerful sermons” at church leading to conversions and an account given of people giving public testimony etc., supper with six kinds of cake, travels to Denison Iowa, Christian Endeavor Meetings, going “calling,” making butterscotch, Council Bluffs, met a traveling salesman named Ned and invited him to call [serious Music Man vibes here], drinking Garfield Tea, trips to Omaha, a boy “nearly broke his neck” listening to find out where I was from, had oyster stew and were waited on by “ye colored” men [in quotes, she seems to disapprove of the description], account of a man who came home drunk and threw up in a basket of goslings, description of work in the packing house [killing, scalding, scraping, and cutting up hogs], a little drawing [Feb 22], attended symphony and accused of flirting with a German violinist [Herr Albin Huster], taking quinine, praying meetings, attends Romeo and Juliet in Omaha, went to a fancy dress party . . . five girls were dressed as men and we had quite a gay time . . . oranges and bananas and two young men peeking through the windows, etc., making bee beer, detailed account of a masquerade party, friend going to California for her health, picnic in Astor, Fourth of July Oration by Mr. Jones, setting off fireworks, a rumor that she is making her wedding clothes and is to be married, Mr. Jones back from his Wall Lake Expedition, Sioux City, YMCA, Heard Miss Wishard of New York speak, etc., etc., etc.

1900 [2vols]. This evening I dressed as a man – full dress coat & vest – white duck trousers – shirt with cuffs and big red striped collar – black bowtie – burned cork mustache & goatee & burnsides – stiff hat and cane. I was admirable, cake walks, registered at the conservatory [Knox Conservatory of Music in Galesburg, Illinois; $42.00], practices music every day [piano], Beecher Chapel [Galesburg]; sang “Bird & the Rose” for Prof. B but dropped my music when I got up etc.]; detailed account of her tryout for recital with professor’s feedback, etc.; Dick talking about his soldier experiences in Porta Rico [Puerto Rico]; Christian Endeavor Meetings; got weighed [for the public recital] – I weigh about the same – am glad for I thot maybe I had lost since my bowels were running off so; Founder’s Day Exercises; played basketball at the gym [injured], basket ball game between the “out of town” girls against the Hall girls, recital of violinist Sol Marcosson [playing a $4,000.00 violin; it seems Macrosson, the premier Midwest Violinist of the era, owned a Stradivarius]; lonely and homesickness; etc., all kinds of details about the conservatory, class, practices, various recitals, etc,.

By 1910, now 38 years old, she has apparently given up on a career in music, was still single, and was just beginning to work as a stenographer.

All in a very good state with no losses.