10 vols.
Manuscript Diaries of Louise Deshong of Chester, Pennsylvania. August, 1862 - March, 1875. The lot also includes her manuscript sentiment album, compiled during 1865.
The nine volumes of Louise Deshong's diary record the external & internal events of her life between the ages of fourteen & twenty-seven. She attended the Brookhall School in Media, Pennsylvania, traveled by railroad to Cape May, New Jersey & to New England, visited the shipbuilder Reany, Son & Archbold during the construction of the ironclad monitors "USS Lehigh" & "USS Sangamon," records her trepidation as Confederate troops approach Gettysburg, attends with great detail to the movements of her inner life. All together these diaries present an intimate & detailed look into the life of a Civil War era young American woman.