
Diary of a little girl in old New York (1919) - mcenedella
https://archive.org/details/diaryoflittlegir00haven
======
nathanm412
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
I've been flipping through. There's also a reference to a "Mr. Nathaniel
Hawthorne, who writes beautiful stories".

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dredmorbius
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.)

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ndespres
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)

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personlurking
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
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/0805...](http://www.amazon.com/Historical-Atlas-New-York-
City/dp/0805078428)

Finally, "Letters of Note" has great finds from historical letters throughout
history: [http://www.lettersofnote.com/](http://www.lettersofnote.com/)

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

~~~
mcenedella
This was a really enjoyable find!

------
nicwolff
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_Squ...](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/bc/Union_Square_NY_Bachmann_1849.jpg)
\- 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?

------
curiously

        "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.

~~~
bostonpete
I read your comment and then had to go Google it myself. Victuals are/is food
for anyone else wondering.

