6 ms·

Diary of a little girl in old New York (1919)

90 points by mcenedella 12y ago

nathanm412 12y ago
Page 32 has a description of hay fever by a 10 year old girl in 1849. It's really quite interesting. Page 59 has her hoping that she'll live to see the 20th century in 50 years. Not the year 2000 though, she doesn't want to witness the apocalypse.
- dredmorbius 12y ago
  I've been flipping through. There's also a reference to a "Mr. Nathaniel Hawthorne, who writes beautiful stories".
markbnj 12y ago
Absolutely fascinating on a number of levels. Thanks for the post.
- mcenedella 12y ago
  This was a really enjoyable find!
deleted 12y ago
[deleted]
curiously 12y ago
"My dear, I am very sorry, but our victuals are all hot now, but if you will call in about an hour they will be cold" And [the beggars] went away awfully angry. Damn her brother is one cold hearted bastard. I had to google what victuals meant.
- phaemon 12y ago
  > I had to google what victuals meant. You haven't read "The Lord of The Rings"?!
- bostonpete 12y ago
  I read your comment and then had to go Google it myself. Victuals are/is food for anyone else wondering.
- nicwolff 12y ago
  It helps if you know that "victuals" is pronounced "vittles".
personlurking 12y ago
Thanks! Might I ask if there are others here who routinely read or search through old texts for interesting finds? I generally prefer this time frame (ie, the late 1800s/early 1900s), and mainly periodicals, but I have yet to dive into anything older or different.
- mcenedella 12y ago
  The website Ephemeral New York is terrific for all sorts of interesting New York history: https://ephemeralnewyork.wordpress.com https://ephemeralnewyork.wordpress.com (the New Year's day post is where I found the reference to her diary) And the Historical Atlas of New York City is both visually and textually superb for all sorts of fascinating details of New York's development: http://www.amazon.com/Historical-Atlas-New-York-City/dp/0805078428 http://www.amazon.com/Historical-Atlas-New-York-City/dp/0805... Finally, "Letters of Note" has great finds from historical letters throughout history: http://www.lettersofnote.com/ http://www.lettersofnote.com/
- eru 12y ago
  Unqualified reservations for all its flaws often had good links to old books.
- honestcoyote 12y ago
  The Public Domain Review (http://publicdomainreview.org/ http://publicdomainreview.org/) is probably perfect for you. Covers a wide range of archive.org and Gutenberg books and it's well tagged so you can focus on particular interests.
ndespres 12y ago
If you enjoy the place and time of writing like this, and the funny turns of phrases and witty voices of young people, now's a good time to read a story or two by Horatio Alger. They've always been one of my favorite peeks into early 1900's New York through the eyes of small children. As a bonus, they also give a lot of insight into the origin a common American trope: 'pulling yourself up your bootstraps' and 'fame and fortune can be yours, no matter how low of a post you begin from, with a good work ethic and strong morals.' I won't get on my soapbox about all that right now. Just keep the preaching in context. "Ragged Dick, Or, Street Life in New York with the Boot-Blacks" http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/5348 http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/5348 "Mark, the Match Boy" https://archive.org/details/markmatchboyorri00alge https://archive.org/details/markmatchboyorri00alge
dredmorbius 12y ago
Please be the Internet Archive BookReader. Yes! It's the Internet Archive BookReader! I loathe, detest, despise, and hate every online application ever created. And several which haven't been. I LOVE TIA's BookReader. It beats damned near every local client reading interface. At full-screen maximization, it's as close to actually reading a book as you can get, and tied in with TIA's book scans, it's pretty amazing. It's faster, lighter, more intuitive, and less annoying than any of the half-dozen or so PDF readers I've got -- the simple fact that once you position the readable window of text on your screen it stays put is goddamned golden. UI/UX designers everywhere look at this and bow before your god. https://openlibrary.org/dev/docs/bookreader https://openlibrary.org/dev/docs/bookreader Much love to the dev crew for this. Oh: it's open source and you can use it on your own site as well. (Oh, and the diary's pretty interesting as well.)
nicwolff 12y ago
This is great fun; I live just around the corner from the house she locates on page 8 as being on the south side of 9th Street between University Place and 5th Avenue. Sadly her block was torn down in the mid-20th century to build the Brevoort apartment complex, but most of the townhouses across the street still stand - I wonder which was whose? Here's an old lithograph of the area: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/bc/Union_Square_NY_Bachmann_1849.jpg http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/bc/Union_Squ... - University Place is the broad street leading up (i.e. south) from the right side of the Union Square, and 9th Street is just this side of Washington Square, the treed rectangle at the right. One curiosity: the date is given as 1849 and on page 17 she says she walks to the House of Refuge on Madison Square; but that was burned down in 1839. Was it still partially standing?

90 points by mcenedella 12y ago

Page 32 has a description of hay fever by a 10 year old girl in 1849. It's really quite interesting. Page 59 has her hoping that she'll live to see the 20th century in 50 years. Not the year 2000 though, she doesn't want to witness the apocalypse.

dredmorbius 12y ago
I've been flipping through. There's also a reference to a "Mr. Nathaniel Hawthorne, who writes beautiful stories".

markbnj 12y ago

Absolutely fascinating on a number of levels. Thanks for the post.

mcenedella 12y ago
This was a really enjoyable find!

deleted 12y ago

[deleted]

curiously 12y ago

"My dear, I am very sorry, but our victuals are all hot now, but if you will call in about an hour they will be cold" And [the beggars] went away awfully angry. Damn her brother is one cold hearted bastard. I had to google what victuals meant.

phaemon 12y ago
> I had to google what victuals meant. You haven't read "The Lord of The Rings"?!
bostonpete 12y ago
I read your comment and then had to go Google it myself. Victuals are/is food for anyone else wondering.
nicwolff 12y ago
It helps if you know that "victuals" is pronounced "vittles".

personlurking 12y ago

Thanks! Might I ask if there are others here who routinely read or search through old texts for interesting finds? I generally prefer this time frame (ie, the late 1800s/early 1900s), and mainly periodicals, but I have yet to dive into anything older or different.

mcenedella 12y ago
The website Ephemeral New York is terrific for all sorts of interesting New York history: https://ephemeralnewyork.wordpress.com https://ephemeralnewyork.wordpress.com (the New Year's day post is where I found the reference to her diary) And the Historical Atlas of New York City is both visually and textually superb for all sorts of fascinating details of New York's development: http://www.amazon.com/Historical-Atlas-New-York-City/dp/0805078428 http://www.amazon.com/Historical-Atlas-New-York-City/dp/0805... Finally, "Letters of Note" has great finds from historical letters throughout history: http://www.lettersofnote.com/ http://www.lettersofnote.com/
eru 12y ago
Unqualified reservations for all its flaws often had good links to old books.
honestcoyote 12y ago
The Public Domain Review (http://publicdomainreview.org/ http://publicdomainreview.org/) is probably perfect for you. Covers a wide range of archive.org and Gutenberg books and it's well tagged so you can focus on particular interests.

ndespres 12y ago

If you enjoy the place and time of writing like this, and the funny turns of phrases and witty voices of young people, now's a good time to read a story or two by Horatio Alger. They've always been one of my favorite peeks into early 1900's New York through the eyes of small children. As a bonus, they also give a lot of insight into the origin a common American trope: 'pulling yourself up your bootstraps' and 'fame and fortune can be yours, no matter how low of a post you begin from, with a good work ethic and strong morals.' I won't get on my soapbox about all that right now. Just keep the preaching in context. "Ragged Dick, Or, Street Life in New York with the Boot-Blacks" http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/5348 http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/5348 "Mark, the Match Boy" https://archive.org/details/markmatchboyorri00alge https://archive.org/details/markmatchboyorri00alge

dredmorbius 12y ago

Please be the Internet Archive BookReader. Yes! It's the Internet Archive BookReader! I loathe, detest, despise, and hate every online application ever created. And several which haven't been. I LOVE TIA's BookReader. It beats damned near every local client reading interface. At full-screen maximization, it's as close to actually reading a book as you can get, and tied in with TIA's book scans, it's pretty amazing. It's faster, lighter, more intuitive, and less annoying than any of the half-dozen or so PDF readers I've got -- the simple fact that once you position the readable window of text on your screen it stays put is goddamned golden. UI/UX designers everywhere look at this and bow before your god. https://openlibrary.org/dev/docs/bookreader https://openlibrary.org/dev/docs/bookreader Much love to the dev crew for this. Oh: it's open source and you can use it on your own site as well. (Oh, and the diary's pretty interesting as well.)

nicwolff 12y ago

This is great fun; I live just around the corner from the house she locates on page 8 as being on the south side of 9th Street between University Place and 5th Avenue. Sadly her block was torn down in the mid-20th century to build the Brevoort apartment complex, but most of the townhouses across the street still stand - I wonder which was whose? Here's an old lithograph of the area: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/bc/Union_Square_NY_Bachmann_1849.jpg http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/bc/Union_Squ... - University Place is the broad street leading up (i.e. south) from the right side of the Union Square, and 9th Street is just this side of Washington Square, the treed rectangle at the right. One curiosity: the date is given as 1849 and on page 17 she says she walks to the House of Refuge on Madison Square; but that was burned down in 1839. Was it still partially standing?