NORTH AMERICAN WOMEN'S LETTERS AND
DIARIES, COLONIAL TO 1950
from Alexander Street Press
http://alexanderstreet.com
A QUICK GUIDE FOR NEW USERS
(5 pages, 15 minutes, easy!)
What’s in it?
North American Women’s Letters and Diaries, Colonial to 1950 is the largest, bestindexed electronic collection of women’s diaries and correspondence ever assembled.
When it reaches project size in mid-2002, the collection will include approximately
150,000 pages of published letters and diaries from Colonial times to 1950, plus 8,000
pages of previously unpublished manuscripts, in electronic format for the first time.
Drawn from more than 1,000 sources, including journal articles, pamphlets, newsletters,
monographs, and conference proceedings, the writings represent all age groups and life
stages, all ethnicities, all geographical regions, the famous and the unknown. The diaries
provide a detailed record of what women wore, the conditions under which they worked,
what they ate, what they read, and how they amused themselves. We can see how
frequently they attended church, how they viewed their connection to God, and how they
prayed. We can explore their relationships with lovers and family and friends.
LET’S GET STARTED….
HOW TO START – THE HOME PAGE
Go to http://www.alexanderstreet2.com/nwldlive (If you are evaluating the database
during a trial period, ask your librarian for the trial passwords.)
Look at the toolbar on the left, with buttons starting About at the top of the toolbar and
Help at the bottom. Wherever you click to begin your session, this toolbar will stay with
you through your work, appearing at the top of each screen.
There are three ways to use the database:
 Browse the various Tables of Contents
 Find things in the two bibliographic files (a database of all the Source Works and
a database of all the Authors)
 Search the text of the letters and diaries themselves.
BROWSE
From the home page, we’ll start by exploring the various ways to browse the Tables of
Contents. Just like a book, the database lets you browse contents. But unlike a book,
here you get to browse in several different ways.
In the Table of Contents section of the toolbar, click Author.
 The toolbar has moved to the top of the screen.
 You are seeing a list of all authors in the database, with columns to the right that
let you link to each woman’s writings (documents).
 You can click to see a woman’s biography or biographical details, or you can link
to all of her letters or diaries or manuscripts. NOTE: In this database “letter
document” means a single letter and “diary document” means a month’s worth of
diary entries. (All diary entries that the woman wrote in February 1865 are
considered 1 of her diary documents).
 If you click to see something in the “manuscripts” column, you’re asking for
documents that will show you not only the re-keyed text, but also a facsimile
image of the original document itself.
 Click D at the top, to jump to a list of authors whose names begin with D.
 Go to Maria Kittredge Whitney Degen, and then click to see her manuscript
documents by clicking the numeral in the “manuscripts” column.
 A list of documents appears. The names of the documents are in plain text (not
italic). The documents all come from a source work that is listed in italics.
 Click on the title of the first document (Diary of Maria Kittredge Whitney Degen,
October 1850). Remember – in this database, a diary document is a month’s diary
writings, so here you are seeing all of Ms. Degen’s October 1850 entries. (In one
1850 letter from Paris to New York, she refers to Deacon Martin as “stupid” for
not knowing that postage will cost less if he uses the “thin paper… called
‘Stranger's Paper’…enveloped and all…”)
 You can read the re-keyed text, and then you can click on the words “manuscript
image” to link to a facsimile image (a picture) of the original writing. When you
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click to see the image, look for the tool at the bottom right of the image (it has
arrows), which you can click to make the image larger.
Browse other writers in the database using the Table of Contents by Author, until
you’re comfortable with the navigation.
At the main toolbar at the top of the screen, explore the other Tables of Contents.
Click Table of Contents by Source.
 You’re seeing a list of all of the source works used to build the database, arranged
alphabetically by author.
 Notice the links to author information and bibliographic details.
 If you click on a source, you’ll see a list of all the documents (letters or monthlong diary entries) drawn from that source.
 For a break from the serious, scroll down and select Julia Heller’s Boyfriend
Book. Can you guess what was on the mind of a teenage girl from Pennsylvania in
the early 1930s?
At the main toolbar at the top of the screen, explore the other Tables of Contents.
Click Table of Contents by Year.
 Here you can see year-by-year what’s in the database.
 For 1676, for example, you see a list of the individual month-long diary
documents written by Hety Shepard (January 1676, February 1676, etc.), all
drawn from the source work called A Puritan Maiden’s Diary.
 Clicking on the document title links to the full text of the document. Clicking on
the name of the source work links to a list of all documents drawn from that
source work.
 Interested in what women were writing during World War I? Click the years and
grab all the documents.
At the main toolbar at the top of the screen, explore the other Tables of Contents.
Click Table of Contents by Place.
 You are looking at a table that lets you browse the contents of the database
arranged by location.
 Find documents written in a place, sent to a place, or in which a place is
discussed.
 The table lets you focus in on individual U.S. states, Canadian provinces, or
other countries.
 Click the link to “other countries,” then click on “United Kingdom.” You can
click to see all the hundreds of documents written in the UK, sent to the UK,
or in which the UK is discussed. Or, moving a few lines down the list of UK
locations, you can link specifically to the few documents in which Bath is
discussed.
At the main toolbar at the top of the screen, explore the other Tables of Contents.
Click Table of Contents by Personal Event.
 You are looking at a list of various key events in the lives of the authors.
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If you’re interested, for example, in how the women wrote about their health
concerns, scroll down to the personal event called “Physical illness of author.”
With one click (click the numeral), you’ll get a list of more than a thousand
documents in which these women discuss their ailments – drawn from more than
1,000 source works, from 1,500 women, covering more than 300 years!
Click the numeral next to “Death of a child” and then find the September 20, 1813
letter from Abigail Smith Adams to Thomas Jefferson, in which she talks of the
death of her adult daughter to breast cancer surgery, metastasis, and repeated
suffering. The letter includes a poem.
At the main toolbar at the top, explore the last Table of Contents option.
Click Table of Contents by Historical Event.
 Here is a list of every historical event mentioned in the letters and diaries. To
complement the conventional historical accounts of events, these writings will
add to your understanding of history through the women’s observations and
reactions.
 Select the Battle of Newport, RI, August 5, 1778. Mary Almy’s detailed
observations of the French landing are outstanding for showing us how slowly
events unfolded and how emotions changed from hour to hour.
SEARCH
Now leave the “Tables of Contents” section of the toolbar. Click on the section of the top
toolbar that says Search Texts or Full Text Search. This tool lets you look for words or
phrases within the texts of the writings. You can also use the various search fields to
create a very specific and detailed search. For example, you can ask to see writings of all
black women who mention the word “slavery.” Here’s how:
 Using the top tool bar, click Search Texts or Full Text Search to expand that
section of the toolbar. Now you’ll see options for searching just letters, just
diaries, and more.
 Click on the button labeled “Advanced.”
 In the field labeled Search in Texts type slave* (the * or asterisk will let you pick
up all words beginning with “slave,” including “slaves” and “slavery.”
 In the “race” field, type black.
 Hit ENTER on your keyboard or click SEARCH at the bottom or top of the
search screen. You’ll get a list of hundreds of documents, written by black
women, that have “slave*” in the text.
 Experiment with the other fields.
 If you don’t know what the name of a field means or how to use the search field,
click on the red link (the label in front of the field) to jump to help for that field.
 If you want to see what search terms are valid for a field (the thesaurus terms),
click on the Terms button to the right of the field. You’ll see all the terms that
you can put into the field.
At the main toolbar at the top of the screen, explore the other Search Texts buttons.
Click Search Text – Letters Only.
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The fields on this search screen will let you find the specific letters you want very
easily. Supposed you are studying the Gold Rush and want to see how women
wrote to their husbands who went west in search of their fortunes.
In the field labeled Search in Texts type gold | mine (The vertical line functions
as “or” to indicate that we want documents mentioning either “gold” or “mine.”)
In the Year Written field, type 1848-1850
In the Relationship to author field, type spouse
Hit ENTER on your keyboard or click SEARCH at the bottom or top of the
search screen.
The letters from Augusta Knapp to her husband express frustration and anger –
and she says that if they’re separated much longer, she’s going to divorce him!
At the main toolbar at the top of the screen, explore the other Search Texts buttons.
Click Search Text – Diaries Only.
 Suppose you’re interested in diaries written by children.
 Don’t type anything into the Search in Texts field
 In the Age when writing field, type –10 (the dash before the 10 means that we’re
looking at ages up to 10 years old when writing)
 Hit ENTER on your keyboard or click SEARCH at the bottom or top of the
search screen.
 Each item listed is a diary document – a month’s writings by these young authors.
 Suppose that you’re interested in a child’s view of city life. Go back to the search
screen, keeping –10 in the Age when writing field, and now also go to the
Where written – setting field and type cities
 Hit ENTER on your keyboard or click SEARCH at the bottom or top of the
search screen.
 This diary by little Katherine Elizabeth Havens gives a surprisingly articulate and
detailed description of life in New York in the middle of the 19th century,
including mention of burial rituals, school, social classes, music, and more.
FIND
The FIND section of the top toolbar lets you look for items in the two bibliographic files
– the “databases within the database” – the file of authors and the file of source works.
Use FIND if you want to locate a kind of source (all works published in England; all
works about travel…) or a kind of author (all Catholic women born in Georgia; all black
teachers…)
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On the top toolbar, click FIND to expand that section of the toolbar.
Click the Sources button
In the Source type field, use the down-arrow and select diary from the menu.
In the Subject headings field, type civil rights
Hit ENTER on your keyboard or click SEARCH at the bottom or top of the
search screen.
You’ll see a list of the source works in the collection that address the subject of
civil rights. By clicking on a source title, you’ll get a list of all the documents
(letters or month-long diary entries) in the source work. From there, open the full
text of the document you wish to read.
At the main toolbar at the top of the screen, explore the other Find button.
Click Find - Authors.
 In the Year of birth field, type –1865 (the dash before “1865” means that we’re
looking for women who were born in 1865 or earlier)
 In the Year of Death field, type 1919- (the dash after “1919” means that we’re
looking for women who died in 1919 or later)
 Hit ENTER on your keyboard or click SEARCH at the bottom or top of the
search screen.
 The result is a list of women who lived through both the American Civil War and
World War I.
One more very cool trick…
 The TERMS buttons are smart! As you fill in the various fields on the search
screen, each list of valid terms changes to match the other items you’ve supplied.
Try this… it’s worth another minute of your time:
 Go to Search Texts – Advanced
 To the right of the Religion field, click the TERMS button. You’ll see a list of all
the valid terms for this field – these are all the various religions of the women in
the database.
 Now go back using your browser’s BACK button, so that you’re back at the
Search Texts – Advanced screen.
 In the Occupation field, type First Lady, but don’t – do not – hit ENTER or
SEARCH. Instead, click on the Religion field again.
 Now you are looking at the list of very few religions that match the occupation
“First Lady.” There are only five – can you guess?
You now have the basics and are ready to explore on your own! But first, go back
to the home page (click HOME at the top toolbar).
 Click the SHOWCASE button at the bottom of the toolbar on the home page.
 You’re seeing a list of items selected by our editors as especially interesting. The
list will change from time to time.
 It’s well worth your time to click on the links to these documents. Besides seeing
especially fascinating writing, we often show the works with new image-viewing
technology. Take a look – the images are terrific!
Thanks for practicing with us. We hope that you’ll spend plenty of time exploring the
collection. Your librarians will answer your questions and send us your comments. At
the bottom of every screen, there’s a link to click if you’d like to send comments directly
to our editorial staff.
Good-bye!
Alexander Street Press L.L.C., Alexandria, VA
http://alexanderstreet.com