A Real Diary or a School Project?
- ahsvolunteer20
- Sep 30, 2022
- 2 min read
In one of the scrapbooks at Jenks Library, there is a page of copied newsprint columns. The date, title, page number, and publication place of the newspaper are unknown, but the page includes, “Diary of Sarah Faulkner. Born March 18, 1756, of Colonel Francis Faulkner and Lizzie Muzzey Faulkner.” Quoted excerpts follow about events leading up to and during the American Revolution. At first glance, the page could seem to be describing a firsthand source about Acton, produced by a young woman at a critical time in its history. The account was originally indexed merely as “Sarah Faulkner’s Diary,” but more investigation showed that our page came from a high school history composition completed in 1936. It was old, but it was not a real diary. What struck us was how easy it would have been, if that “diary transcription” had been posted online, for someone’s imaginative exercise to spread as “fact.”
Transcriptions that we find on the internet can be wonderful sources that allow us to search for topics of interest quickly and easily. Sometimes, the original can be very hard to track down, but as our example shows, it is essential to make sure that the transcription came from an actual diary. It is especially helpful when transcriptions are accompanied by digitized versions of the original documents. For example, in Acton we are lucky to have access to our earliest town records, both digital images and indexed and searchable transcriptions, thanks to the efforts of Acton Memorial Library and some dedicated volunteers. (Find Side-by-Side and Transcriptions here.)
Jenks Library and many other archives have extensive collections of diaries, journals, and letters, many of which have never been transcribed. While original documents can be frustratingly incomplete when one is looking for a specific piece of information, they are incomparable sources for understanding the actual interests and concerns of people in earlier times. On the other hand, imagined firsthand accounts of historical events are a wonderful way to get students to engage with history. We just have to be careful to tell them apart.
A sampling of diaries and personal journals at Jenks Library:
