HANDWRITTEN POCKET DIARY (1902) OF WELL-OFF, YOUNG SINGLE BOSTONIAN WOMAN, LIVING IN NEW YORK by Burbank, Margaret - 1902

Brookline, Massachusetts: Handwritten Document, 1902. Leather-bound. Very Good. Small, black leather (gilt stamped "Standard 211") diary (4 in. x 2 1/2 in.) with leather tongue and loop for closing. Opens with approximately 32 pp. calendar, postage rates, antidotes for poisons, population, legal holidays, eclipses, festivals and fasts, tide table. This followed by the largest section, the day by day record, most two entries per page. This followed by a Memorandum section (left blank); Cash Account section, more memorandum (blank); an address book with three pages filled-in; a record of Calls; and finally, a record of Letters with three columns: Date Received, Correspondent's Name, and Date answered. This is well-filled-in. (Here the hinge splits a bit, but the little book is still holding well.

Book bears the name and address, at the beginning, of the previous owner: "Margaret Burbank; 1880 Beacon Street; Brookline Mass."but it would seem that this young woman lives in New York, perhaps, on her own or perhaps with her sister Bertha C. Burbank, but travels between Boston and New York, perhaps by train, fairly frequently, visiting parents, her grandmother, friends, etc.

Margaret spends her time staying and sewing, or going on little adventures, either to afternoon matinees at the theatre ("Hattie and I went to see Maude Adams at the Hollis Street), or calling on friends, or to the dressmakers, or "the Junior Dance at Radcliffe this evening. Wore my pink crepe de Chine".

Instead of cataloguing the weather is (like so many other diaries) many entries in this book begin with the phrase: "Stayed in today" or "Stayed in and sewed this morning". Reading "across" her many two-or-three-sentence entries, this diarist, however, reveals someone who spends much time sewing. But she also sojourns for theatre or occasionally a lecture ("...went to Burton Holmes's lecture on "Peking" at Symphony Hall this afternoon", or "Mr. H.W. Gleason on "A Photographer in the Canadian Rockies".

Entries begin on New Years Day, 1902: "Bertha and I came over to New York today. I am going to make her and Fred a visit. They have a pretty flat in Brooklyn, on Lafayette Avenue." (Bertha C. Burbank is presumeably her sister. On Thursday, January 9, 1902 the entry reads: "Stayed in this morning. We went to the Lyseum Theatre this afternoon to see Anna Russell in "The Girl and the Judge". The next day: "We went down town this morning. Stayed in and sewed this afternoon." Sunday January 12th: "...Papa came over to dinner. We took a car ride to Richmond Hill this afternoon..." The very next day, Monday, January 13th: "We went over to New York this morning and didn't get home until after five. Lunched at Purcell's. Went down to the Shepherds and played Hearts this evening." two days later, on Wednesday, January 15th, Margaret writes: "Stayed in and sewed this morning. We went to the Garden Theatre this afternoon to see Virginia Harned in "Alice of Old Vincennes"... Further entries record: "...Lunched at Wanamakers"; "...Fred took me for an elevated car ride this afternoon and we went to Pelham Ave. the end of the route.". "Went down to Brooklyn this morning"; "We went to the Montauk Theatre this afternoon to see James T. Powers in "The Messenger Boy"; or "Went down to Coney Island"; "Stayed in this morning. Went in town this afternoon. Went to the A.M.C. reception this evening. George went with me. I wore my yellow gown; "We have had a hard snow storm and I stayed in all day." or "Went sleighing this afternoon", or "Went to a Colonial tea this afternoon", or even: (July 9th) "George came down this afternoon and stayed to dinner. Played ping pong this evening."

Occasionally in this rather privileged life, a mishap occurs: "...The gas range exploded this morning and burned Julia's face."

Later Margaret writes (Jan. 27th, 1902): "We went out to look for a new maid this morning and Bertha engaged one. Served this afternoon. (One wonders what Margaret's "Serving" is about -- luncheon; church??). At times, as recorded in this little diary, Margaret plays Ping Pong, Pool, and Whist, as well
as serving at a certain "Club" This is a largely uneventful record of day to day life in Boston and New York, of a financially secure young woman, but which provides a rare glimpse of how her time was actually spent, in "real time" as it were. So valuable to get the "slowed-down" picture which social histories seldom mention except
by way of examples in general trends, and for this reason it is an invaluable record of life within that economic sector, perhaps complementary to the fiction of Edith Wharton.