At a time when we seem to take stock of the old year and are about to usher in a new year, we are more aware than ever that we humans are marking time. Although diaries are not as common as they once were, they are a way for us to consider a time in the diarists’ lives. Let’s look at a sampling of four diaries’/journals’ January 1 entries to see how some individuals celebrate (or do not) the arrival of a new year. All of these diaries and more may be found and read in full at https://www.buffalolib.org/research-resources/digital-collections?field_collection_category_value=3.
In Benjamin Eichberg’s January 1, 1907, diary entry above we read his celebratory account of warm wishes from friends, thankfulness for his good health and hope of good things to come. Eichberg lived in Buffalo’s Fruit Belt with his mother. He was a typesetter for Matthews-Northrup Co. and his diary is sentimental and charming to read.
Lieutenant Richard Williams of His Majesty’s Twenty-third Regiment kept this 1774-1775 journal during the Revolutionary War. He pens his January 1, 1774 entry that the “Roman nobility [celebrate by] dancing and reveling” and that there is singing and music on the streets where he is. We cannot say if he enjoyed the celebration as he has been delayed in his return to Bologna for his tour of duty. He was an accomplished map maker and watercolor landscape artist whose maps and paintings provide a better understanding of the Revolutionary War from a British Soldier’s perspective.
In the January 1, 1931 diary entry of Ada Barnes, a widow who runs a medicinal dispensary in her Hamburg, New York, home, we read about the comings and goings of her social group. She records that she and a couple of friends have a New Year dinner at a cafe and that it “cost me $4.00.”
On New Years Day in 1937 Alice Mae Smith of Buffalo “went to Ethel’s for dinner” on a “clear sun shining & like an April day” according to her diary. “But we all missed Dad,” she wrote.
While most of these New Year Day entries seem a bit mundane, that information has value for historians and the simply curious reader as well. Dinner for three in 1931 cost $4.00. In 1907 and 1937, the weather on January 1 was spring-like. In Rome in 1774, the custom was to sing and make merry in the streets.
If you would like read more from these and our other diaries, please go to https://www.buffalolib.org/research-resources/digital-collections?field_collection_category_value=3 and enjoy!
Happy New Year from the Grosvenor Room.
The Grosvenor Room: Genealogy, Local History, Maps, Music & Rare Books 