Conditions Governing Use

The Library believes that all or nearly all material in this collection is likely to be in the public domain, free of copyright restrictions. Visit our Permissions and Publishing page for more information about use of Special Collections materials. The library can provide copyright information upon request, but users are responsible for making their own determination about lawful use of collections materials.

Conditions Governing Access

This collection is minimally processed and open for research.

Preferred Citation

MSS 16890, Elizabeth Albee Brooks Diary, Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library, University of Virginia Library.

Immediate Source of Acquisition

This collection was purchased from Whitemore Rare Books by the Small Special Collections Library, University of Virginia on 5 February 2024.

Biographical / Historical Description

Elizabeth Albee Brooks (1828-1869) was born to Rev.Charles Brooks and Cecilia Williams. She had one brother, Charles Wolcott, who survived to adulthood. She lived in the Boston suburb of Medford for her entire life. She attended art classes and academic lectures in Medford before they were disrupted by the Civil War. Elizabeth returned to art classes when they resumed at the conclusion of the war in April 1865. Brooks also attended lectures and classes at the Boston Historical Society, Normal School, and the Athenaeum. She died of consumption in 1869 at the age of fourty-one.

Source New England Historic Genealogical Society ; Boston, Massachusetts; Massachusetts Vital Records, 1840–1911 . (Accessed through Ancestry) Dudley, Dean . History of the Dudley family: with genealogical tables, pedigrees, &c.: Dudley, Dean, 1823-1906 . Wakefield, Mass.: D. Dudley publisher, 1886. (Accessed through Ancestry)

Content Description

This collection contains the diary of Elizabeth Albee Brooks (1828-1869) from 1865. Brooks was an artist in training who lived in Medford, Massachusetts. The diary has an inscription in the front endpaper that reads "With many happy new years from her loving Auntie. Medford." The diary contains 124 entries handwritten in pencil graphite. It documents and gives insights into the experiences of adult, single women in suburban Northern communities as the Civil War came to a close. The diary documents her life, the resumption of art classes, notes of appointments with friends to attend performances, exhibits, and lectures, and grappling with a decision to travel to California with her brother Charlie or not. She notes friends having babies, losing husbands to the war. She also notes her travel which increases with the end of the war. Which includes trips to Boston, New York, and Newport, Rhode Island. Notable events in her diary include attending the Unitarian Convention of 1865 and the assassination of President Lincoln which she notes on April 15, which marked significant changes for her personally and nationally.

Subjects and Indexing Terms

• United States -- History -- Civil War, 1861-1865 -- Personal narratives
• United States History Civil War 1861-1865
• Whitmore Rare Books