I read with interest in The Herald (Everett, WA.- I used to pedal it in my Snohomish paper route when it was 50 cent/mo 1938 etc.) for Tues Dec 8, 1998, Time Out section , p. 6D. Dear Abby column, one Letter QUOTED IN FULL AS FOLLOWS: DEAR ABBY Abigail Van Buren Archive lets diagy be part of history DEAR ABBY: Please tell "Tempted in Tennessee" not to destroy her diary of 50 years. She should leave it to a women's history archive, such as the Newcomb College Center for Research on Women in New Orleans. Women's lives are reported far too often through the eyes of the men around them. Their writings and papers are either considered inconsequential or, if they're saved, they are archived with those of their spouse. Diaries give historians and other scholars insights into the daily lives of ordinary women ( and men) and are a valuable resource. Public television recently had a program about the diary of a midwife in early 18th-century Maine. This diary is the focal point of a marvelous book by Laurel Thatcher Ulrich, "A Midwife's Tale." Reading the diary excerpts in this book gives one a picture of the daily experiences of women in that time and place. Ulrich went beyond just the daily activities and wove them into a historical background. The place for longtime diaries is, ultimately, a research library. According to the archivist at Newcomb, if you do not want to give up the papers themselves, they can be copied onto acid-free paper and the papers preserved for historians. The archivist will also tell you how to maintain any privacy you feel is needed. (I am currently doing this with a collection of letters my uncle wrote during World War II.) Please done't destroy records of lives - let them become part of our history. (Name & loc. given at the bottom of the letter, but unnecessary for this information - CC., then Abby's Reply:) DEAR _____: (Name not included, same reason above - CC.) Thank you for pointing this out. "Tempted in Tennessee" did not include her name and address with her letter, so I'm printing yours in the hope that she ( and others who keep diaries and journals) wil see it. I was unaware that research libraries might find them valuable. Since that letter appeared, I have been inundated with letters telling me that such memorabilia could also be of intrest to libraries and historical socities. If the contents are very personal, they can be donated under the condition that the contents not be revealed before a specific period of time has elapsed - say 25 to 50 years. END OF QUOTE ARTICLE IN THE HERALD dear abby syndicated article. COMMENT: Of course there are various KINDS of diaries; female's diaries, men's diaries, explorer's, scientist's of various kinds but they are accounts of human life experiences that can tell a story. Some may be quite private and intimate at the time they were written, but in time they may take on a whole different meaning to generation to come morally, and otherwise. The main things is that they tell a story of life as it was during that period of Time. Recently, when I told of video-taping a whole "gold mine" of items that were kept in drawers and boxes we all are familiar with was but one example of the "documents" we run across from the Past. At this point I wish to point out that using a 35 mm camera for very close-ups of documents, pix etc. does not mean that if you have a 35 mm. camera you can do this. You must have a 35 mm. camera that has macro capability in some way. They need to have adjustable lens that can be removed so as to ADD, or EXTEND the lens in such a way that you could be able to copy large to very small items such as a postage stamp. The macro feature on some less expensive cameras may give a limited amount of focus for this kind of photography. In my own case, my old Pentax had a removable lens (unscrews, not the bayonet type, even) so I got a set of extender rings and I can use my regular lens along with the extender rings to copy anything from a large photo or doc. or I can copy a postage stamp full view. Also, if the viewfinder is not SLR or through the lens capability then it is much more difficult to get items CENTERED properly. Using the video cameras, you view what it is you want included in the final copy so it is usually a "breeze" to copy properly. Also the use of a TV as a monitor, you can see in color exactly how it will look in the finished view. As to the values of the diary, we have only to think of "The Diary of Ann Frank" which in the Netherlands, they pronounce On Fronk, not our western accent which can be puzzling to people when we say Ann Frank, we found when we inquired of the loc. of the museum in her honor at the loc. of that bit of history. When I was seeking information about my Clark Fam history from the Southington (CT.) Historical Society, they not only wrote to me about a 1720 Clark built house in Southington CT, but they also had the dairy which kept by my Clark Family who had built that house, the Congregational Church in downtown Southington, along with many other documents they had available to me. At 15 cents a page, I was able to get a "representative sample" of a Clark farm diary. The ladys at the hist. soc. were gracious enough in my endeavor to choose the most interesting parts of that diary, that told of the daily life, an account of expenses, expenses for hired labor by name, etc. then a page from the diary that listed the various members, all ages, that lived on that farm - names, dates of births, deaths, etc. I only bought $1.50 worth of pages of it but I got a $100 worth of information from an old diary from the late 1700s and sampled life as it was in those times, clear across the U.S. of my own family as farmers. Accounts of animal raising, crops, accounts of weather information - temps. planting information. What a mine of information for a few pennies, and there is still more of the diary kept back in Southington, the town I eventually got to visit, even only briefly because those I was with were NOT genealogists, but they allowed me a few hours to video tape and savor with my eyes what I was seeing in those cemeteries!!! I have 2 of my Dad's diaries - oh, yes, men have kept diaries also. He died when I was just 3 yrs old, he was about 27, young. His diaries were kept when he and my grandfather worked as civil engineers on the logging railway system for Selleck, E of Kent, WA where there was a big logging camp with their own hospital facilities, chow house, bunk houses, etc. Pix helped to view these items, but his diaries have been most interesting for me to read and cherish as keepsakes of my Dad and GF. The fishing, hunting, his six shooter pistol - all accounted for in the diary - then the pix to really bring it all to life. Lots of time to write in the evenings. And his girl friends - he had them all coded in the back of the diary with initials, and some times phone numbers when phone numbers were simple. He was just fresh out of the University of WA with a degree in Forestry but hadn't married yet. I found my Mother's initials in it when she was a telephone opr. in Portland, OR. among the varous other initials of friends, relatives, girlfriends. The diary goes right up to when he marries my mother. That along with all the camp life of the early 1920s, the purchase of automobiles, riding on the Speeder on the RR tracks, or the logging locomotive to get in & out of the deep woods camp, as there were no roads then to access the place. All made for very interesting reading - nothing mushy or anything, but lots of humor, and description of camp life, roughing it, all the fish and wildlife just for the hunting for food in additon to the usual menu. Diarys can be the source of some great history of people, places, and things, and especially over a period of time can reflect and allow a look into the lives of others in a very positive way to become valuable history for later generations to appreciate. I was very pleased to see a syndicated column discuss and promote the retention of accounts from diarys, which can be tastefully done, and yet protect the privacy of those that may not have intended that their diary be shared at the time of writing. Just the means a transportation alone during various seasons of the year and at locs where a means of transportation was a dire necessity. Owning one of those bone crusher bikes with the large wheel in front and the tiny one in the rear - ownership of one to get to and from their work was serious business, let along the ability to afford one. This is one of the items I found in a diary when I did the video documentary of the items loaned to me. The diarys written by working men and their accounts of daily life are priceless today for the information they contained ! And expecially when they were related even distantly from the reader. Carroll in Snohomish. * * * 30 * * * ___________________________________________________________________ You don't need to buy Internet access to use free Internet e-mail. Get completely free e-mail from Juno at http://www.juno.com/getjuno.html or call Juno at (800) 654-JUNO [654-5866]