This list of open access, digitized diaries is designed to assist students and scholars interested in studying diaries. Please let me know if there are additional resources I should add.

The list is alphabetized by the diary author’s last name, or by the title of collective archives. Institutional hosts are indicated in parenthesis.

Last updated June 11, 2023. Newest additions to the list are marked in red.

Jump to: A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

A

Abbott, Caroline (Internet Archive)

Adams, Abzuga (Zu) (Kansas Memory)

Adams, John (Massachusetts Historical Society)

Adams, John Quincy (Massachusetts Historical Society)

Adams, Charles Frances (Massachusetts Historical Society)

Adams, Sarah Eve (Duke U)

Ahmad al-Salih of Bone (British Library)

Alling, Charles (Hanover)

Allsop, W.J.A. (Mosman Library)

Anonymous (Diary from the Warsaw Ghetto) (US Holocaust Memorial Museum)

Anonymous (Diary of a miner on the Ballarat goldfields) (State Library of Victoria)

Anonymous (Japanese civilian in Kuala Lumpur) Cambridge)

Anthony, Susan B. (Library of Congress)

d’Arblay, Frances Burney (New York Public Library)

Armstrong, James (Library of Congress)

Avery, Louis Willyama (State Library of South Australia)

B

Bailey, Florence M. (Smithsonian)

Ballard, Martha

Bancroft, Hettie (Duke U)

Barber, Florence (William & Mary)

Barnett, Violet (William & Mary C)

Barton, Clara (Library of Congress)

Beaux, Cecilia (Smithsonian)

Beckett, Mina McCormick (Ball State U)

Bell, Alexander Graham (Library of Congress)

Bell, James (State Library of South Australia)

Beloit College Archives Diary Repository

Bennitt, John (Grand Valley State)

Blackjack, Ada (Dartmouth)

Blackwelder, Ruth M. (Smithsonian)

Blackwell Family (Harvard)

Bleecker, Elizabeth De Hart (NYPL)

Bobak, Molly Lamb (Library and Archives Canada)

Boissevain, Ingrid Jo, aka “Diary of Posh Schoolgirl”

Bonnin, Irene (State Library of South Australia)

Bowman, Alexander Grayson (U Arizona)

Boyle, Robert (Royal Society)

Bradley, Elisha (Duke U)

Bradway, John V. (Princeton)

Bragdon, May (U Rochester)

Brant, J. W. (Ball State U)

Breen, Patrick (U California)

Brevard, Keziah (U South Carolina)

Brewster, William (Biodiversity Heritage Library/Missouri Botanical Gardens)

Bright, Abbie (Kansas Memory)

Brisbane, William (Princeton)

Browne, Charlotte (New York Historical Society, New York Historical Digital Collections)

Browne, Edward Granville (Cambridge)

Brown, Joseph (U Delaware)

Brown, Theo (Worcester Polytechnic)

Brumfield, Julia

Buckley, Benjamin S. (Smithsonian)

Burche, B. F. (Princeton)

Burgess, William Hugh, “Diary of a Marylebone Schoolboy” (London Metropolitan Archives)

Burkett, Glenn J. (Ohio History Connection)

Burnett Archive of Working Class Autobiographies (Brunel U)

Burrell, Sarah “Sate”

C

Camp, Elizabeth (U Michigan)

Cannon, George Q. (Church Historian’s Press, LDS)

Carter, Jimmy (Carter Library)

Carter, Robert “King” (U Virginia)

Cary, Harriette (William & Mary)

Cass, Isabella (Stanford)

Chadick, Mary (Duke U)

Chadwick, Helen (Henry Moore Institute)

Chapman, Fanny

Charlotte, Queen (Royal Collection Trust)

Clarkson, Thomas (Abolition Project)

Chernyaev, Anatoly S. (National Security Archive)

Civil War Collections (Michigan State U)

Civil War Diaries and Letters (Auburn U)

Civil War Diaries (New York Heritage Digital Collections)

Civil War Diaries and Letters (U of Iowa)

Civil War in Missouri (State Historical Society of Missouri)

Copland, Lucy

Corbett, Thomas P. “Boston” (Kansas Memory)

Cummins, Henry (Yale)

Currie, Arthur (McGill U)

D

Dargan, James F. (Cal State U Northridge)

Darwin, Charles (Cambridge)

Daum, Mildred Valeda (Indiana U)

Davis, Emilie (Villanova)

Davis, May

Davis, Stuart (Morgan Library & Museum)

Davis, Thomas (Duke U)

Dawson, George Mercer (McGill U)

Diaries in the Archives of American Art (Smithsonian)

Dickens, Charles (New York Public Library)

Dickinson, Lavinia (Harvard)

Digital Archives of Latvian Folklore (contains numerous diaries) (U of Latvia)

Digital Civil War Collection: Antebellum, Civil War, and Reconstruction Era Diaries (1839-1869) (U Tennessee Knoxville)

Douglas, Martha (Royal BC Museum)

Douglass, Frederick (Library of Congress)

Douglass, Helen Pitts (Library of Congress)

Doyle, Margaretta Hirsch (William & Mary C) Check out this collaborative, student-edited project!

Du Bois, Alexander (U Massachusetts Amherst)

Duncan-Wallace, Alexander Munro (Cambridge)

Dupont, Stephen (Library of Congress)

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E

Edison, Thomas (Rutgers)

Edmondson, Belle (Documenting the American South)

Egerton, Alfred Charles Glyn (Royal Society)

Embury, Philip A. Journal 1 and Journal 2 (California State Library, From the Page)

Emerson, Mary Moody (Northeastern U)

Evans, Charles (State Library of Victoria)

F

Fairbank, Thomas (Cambridge)

Field, Michael (Victorian Lives & Letters)

Fike, Didamie Emaline Hicks (U Southern Mississippi)

Flaxman, Ann (Romantic Circles)

Fleischmann, Aloys (University College Cork)

Foote, Shelby (From the Page)

Frank, Anne (Association for Research and Access to Historical Texts). Note: Access to the digitized manuscript is limited by copyright law and U.S.-based IP addresses are blocked. More information and a link to the diaries.

Frankowski, Elizabeth (Toledo-Lucas County Public Library)

Frobisher, Joseph (McGill U)

Fujimoto, George, Jr. (U California)

Fugimoto, Toranosuke “George” (U California)

G

Galt, Louise A. (William & Mary C)

Garriott, Ralph J. (Indiana U)

Gass, Claire (McGill U)

Getty, J. Paul (Getty Museum)

Gibson, George W. (Ball State)

Gibson, Samuel J. (Library of Congress)

Gilman, Charlotte Perkins (Harvard)

Glass, Jinny (U Southern Mississippi)

Goddard, James Stanley (McGill U)

Godwin, William (Oxford U)

Graham, David Crockett (Smithsonian)

Graves, Jeremiah White (see also Graves’ diary on Facebook)

Graves, Robert (U Victoria)

Gray, William Fairfax (Southern Methodist University)

Guevara, Ernesto “Che”

Guion, Mary (New York Historical Society; New York Heritage Digital Collections)

Gunn, Thomas Butler (Lehigh U)

H

H.D. (Yale)

Hadfield, Joseph (McGill U)

Hall, Charles Francis (Smithsonian): Vol 1, Vol 2

Hall, Marion Spencer (Smithsonian)

Hanau, Stella Bloch (Bernard)

Hand, Sadie Winters (Digital Long Island, New York Heritage Digital Collections)

Harris, Addie S. (Utica College, New York Heritage Digital Collections)

Hart, Lydia H. (William & Mary C)

Harvey, Annette (Southern Methodist U)

Hasbrouck, Julia Lawrence (Stone Ridge Library, New York Heritage Digital Collections)

Hawk, Norene (Ball State U)

Hawthorne, Nathaniel (New York Public Library)

Hayami, Stanley (Online Archive of California): check out the virtual reality exhibit of his diaries and letters created by the Japanese American National Museum

Heap, Anthony (London Metropolitan Archives)

Heian-Period Chronicles (contains numerous diaries) (International Research Center for Japanese Studies)

New! Heydenreich, Ludwig Heinrich (Google Arts & Culture, Zentralinstitut für Kunstgeschichte)

Hill, Abbey Williams (U Puget Sound)

Hill, Edward (St. Mary’s College)

Historic Iowa Children’s Diaries Collection (U Iowa)

Historical Diaries (Utah State U)

Hodgkinson, Norah Isabel (private — permission required)

Hogg Quintin, Lord Hailsham (Margaret Thatcher Foundation)

Holliday, Cyrus K. (Kansas Memory)

Hooke, Robert (London Metropolitan Archives)

Horner, Vaughn (Ohio History Connection)

Hosley, Dexter P. (Princeton)

Hoyt, David Starr (Princeton)

Huet, Albert (U Florida)

Hummel, R. Stuart (Stanford)

Hunnius, Carl J. A. (Kansas Memory)

Huntington, Cornelia (a.k.a. Martha Wickham) (Digital Long Island, New York Historical Digital Collections)

I

de Iturbide, Agustin (Southern Methodist U)

J

Jackson, William Henry (New York Public Library)

Japanese American Relocation Digital Archives (U California)

Jay, John (Columbia)

Johnson, Bruce

Johnson, L. B. (LBJ Library)

Johnson, Lady Bird (National Archives)

Jones, Sarah E. (Internet Archive)

Jusando sono yon [The Thirteen Children] (Princeton)

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K

Kelsey, Dandridge E. (Kansas Memory)

Kikuchi, Charles (Online Archive of California)

Kimble, Sam (Internet Archive)

Kirby, Mary (New York Historical Digital Collections)

Kolic, John (Sterling Hill Mining Museum)

Kroff, Charles (U of Oklahoma)

L

Lacey, E.S. “Gordon”: Diary 1 Diary 2 Diary 3 (Mosman Library)

Larnard, J. A. (Princeton)

Lamb, William (William & Mary C)

Last, Nina (LSE, Endell Street Military Hospital Digital Collection)

Lawrence, T. E.: Diary A. Diary B

Lazzell, Blanche (Smithsonian)

Lewis, Llewelyn (Ohio History Connection)

Lister, Anne (West Yorkshire Archive Service)

Liston, Henrietta Marchant (National Library of Scotland): watch an introductory video about the diaries

Littlefield, Elizabeth B. (Internet Archive)

Livingston, David (UCLA)

Llewhellin, Winifred

Locke, Delia (U of Pacific)

Lowry, Janice (Smithsonian)

Lucas, Melchior (Wroclaw U Library): read about the return of the diary

Lundy, Victor A. (Library of Congress)

M

Machen, Lewis H. (Library of Congress)

Machyn, Henry

Madi, Maria (US Holocaust Memorial Museum)

Madison, James (Library of Congress)

Maggs, Robert (Ball State U)

Malbone, James M. (New York State Military Museum)

Manet, Édouard (Morgan Library & Museum)

Manuscripts of the American Civil War (Notre Dame)

Martin, Mary (Trinity College Dublin)

Matthews, Zenas (Southwestern U)

McCoy, Esther (Smithsonian)

New! McEntee, Jervis (Smithsonian)

McPhail, Leonard C. (U.S. National Archive of Medicine)

Meyers, William H. (New York Public Library)

Montagu, Ralph (Yale)

Moore, George F. (Internet Archive)

Morgenthau, Henry (FDR Library)

Mormon Missionary Diaries (Brigham Young)

Morse, Samuel (Library of Congress)

Mosher, Clelia D. (From the Page)

Moss, William Pearce (U Newfoundland)

Mountain, Eva (William & Mary)

Muir, John (U of Pacific)

Mundy, James Wallace (State Library of South Australia)

Myers, William H. (New York Public Library)

N

Naranja, José (via Instagram)

Nash, Solomon (New York Historical Society, New York Heritage Digital Collections)

Needham, Joseph (Cambridge)

Neely, Thomas (Ball State U)

Nelson, D. W. (Ball State U)

Nightingale, Henry O. (Calisphere)

O

Ogilby, William Law (Royal BC Museum)

Operation War Diary

Orwell, George

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P

Paine, Claire Eva (Kansas Memory)

Patton, George S. (Library of Congress)

Peary, Marie Ahnighito (U New England)

Penfield, Helen Kermott (McGill U)

Percy, Algernon Heber (Southern Methodist U)

Perry, Blanche (Portal to Texas History)

Peticolas, Theodore Victor (Grand Valley State U)

Pioneer Lives (U Iowa)

Pippitt, Henry (U Tennessee)

Plummer, Adam Francis (Anacostia Community Museum)

The Power of My Pen to Describe: Ten American Diaries, 1750 to 1900 (Notre Dame)

Putnam, Frederick (Ball State U)

Putnam, Sarah Gooll (Massachusetts Historical Society)

Q

Quilter, A.W. (Smithsonian)

R

Ravenel, Henry William (U South Carolina)

Read, Whitley (Grand Valley State U)

Reader, Samuel (Kansas Memory)

Reed, Charles Wellington (Library of Congress)

Rich, Mary, Lady Warwick (Yale)

Richards, George F. (Church Historian’s Press, LDS)

Ringo, Mary (Library of Congress)

Robb, Eugenia (William & Mary C)

Roberts, Robert J. (Royal BC Museum; transcription in process)

Robinson, Elizabeth (Smithsonian)

Rogers, Henry B. (Massachusetts Historical Society)

Rollin, Frances Anne (Smithsonian)

Rosenberg, Alfred (US Holocaust Museum)

Rowley, Mrs. (Internet Archive)

Ryan, Thomas L. (Ball State U)

S

Sabine, Edward (Royal Society)

Sanders, Joseph (Library of Congress)

Sasson, Siegfried (Cambridge)

New! Satterthwaite, Margaret Conway (MesoWeb)

Senesh, Hannah (National Library of Israel). For more on Senesh.

Schenker, Heinrich (King’s College London)

Scheuerman, Harry

Schiefer, Clara Louise (William & Mary)

Schulz, Augustus (Kansas Memory)

Scott, John, Sir (Princeton)

Scott, Robert Falcon (British Library)

Sharp, John (Historical Society of Pennsylvania)

Sheldon, Ella (U of the Pacific)

Shimek, Bohumil (Smithsonian)

Shiner, Michael (Library of Congress)

Shiner, Michael (Navel History and Heritage Command)

Shore, Emily (U Virginia) [access limited]

Siedler, Amelia (U Southern Mississippi)

Smith, Mary Alta (Ball State U)

Smith, Barbara Hillard (Massachusetts Historical Society)

Smith, Philander (Ball State U)

Smith, Margaret Bayard (Library of Congress, From the Page)

Smith, Ross (State Library of South Australia)

Spafford, Horatio Gates (Library of Congress)

Spight, Thomas (U Southern Mississippi)

Stanton, Robert Brewster (New York Public Library)

Stedman, John Gabriel (U Minnesota)

Stephen, Dorthea Jane (Duke U)

Stevens, Lucy Pier (Southern Methodist U)

Stone, Henry Lane (Kentucky Historical Society, From the Page)

Student Diaries (Vassar)

Sweat, Margaret Jane Mussey (U New England)

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T

Taft, Horatio Nelson (Library of Congress)

Tam, Reuben (Smithsonian)

Tatum, Robert (U Tennessee Knoxville)

Tennant, Stephen (National Education Network)

Terrell, Frederick Leopold (State Library of South Australia)

Thiele, Barbara (Kansas Memory)

Thistlewood, Thomas (Yale)

Thorburn, Tottie (Sydney Living Museums)

Thoreau, Henry David (Morgan Library, U California Santa Barbara)

Thompson, Ellen Powell (New York Public Library)

Thornton, Anna Maria Brodeau (Library of Congress)

Tilden, Ezra (Gilder Lehrman)

Tolstoy, Leo

Trails of Hope: Overland Diaries and Letters, 1846-1869 (Brigham Young)

Tresidder, Mary Curry (Stanford)

Truman, Harry S. (Truman Library)

Tuttle, Sarah

Twist, Eva A. (U New England)

U

V

Vanmatre, Cyrus (Ball State U)

Van Rensselaer, Killaen (Digital Long Island, New York Heritage Digital Collections)

Van Valen, Alexander (Smithsonian)

Vargus, Alberto (Smithsonian)

Victoria, Queen (Oxford U)

Violette, M. A. (Princeton)

Voices of Civilian Internment: WWII Singapore (Cambridge)

W

W., Mrs. (U Southern Mississippi)

Wainwright, Jacob (Livingston Online) Read about the diary in The Guardian.

Walker, Ann (Read about the discovery of Walker’s diary by the In Search of Ann Walker research group; see also Anne Lister’s diaries, linked above)

Wallace, Ellen (Kentucky Historical Society, From the Page)

Walp, William Harrison

Washington, George (Library of Congress)

Waterhouse, Loyal Nelson (Princeton)

Watkins, Harry

Wells, Emmeline B. (Church Historian’s Press)

Wetmore, Hannah Edwards (Yale)

Wharton, Thomas Kelah (New York Public Library)

White, Capt. William A.

Wight, Claire Lilian (William & Mary)

Willard, Frances (Frances Willard Historical Assn.)

Williams, Daisy (Sweet Briar C, Internet Archive)

Williams, Jennie

Williamson, Alice (Duke U)

Wilson, Charles Algernon (State Library of South Australia)

Wilson, John C. (Indiana U)

Withers, Anita Dwyer (Documenting the American South)

Wittgenstein, Ludwig (The Ludwig Wittgenstein Project)

Women’s Travel Diaries (Duke)

Women Working, 1800-1900: Diaries, Memoirs, and Journals (Harvard)

Wood, Beatrice (Smithsonian)

Woolf, Virginia (Woolf Online)

Wordsworth, Dorothy (Morgan Library & Museum)

World War I Diaries (State Library and State Archives of North Carolina, From the Page)

Wright, Orville and Wilbur (Library of Congress)

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X

Y

Yamada, n.a. (Smithsonian)

Z

Zeman, Zoya (U Southern Mississippi)

Last updated: June 11, 2023