Administrative Information

Conditions Governing Access

Collection is open to all researchers.

Conditions Governing Use

Before reproducing or quoting from any materials, in whole or in part, permission must be obtained from the Special Collections Research Center, and the holder of the copyright, if not Swem Library.

Preferred Citation

S. Agnes Kummer Diary, Special Collections Research Center, Swem Library, College of William and Mary.

Acquisition Information

The materials were acquired by Special Collections Research Center on 04/21/2009.

Processing Information

Accessioned and processed in May 2009 by Ute Schechter, Warren E. Burger Archivist, with further description by Pat Overton, SCRC staff, in August 2009.

Biographical Note

Information about this individual or organization may be available in the Special Collections Research Center Wiki: <a href="http://scrc.swem.wm.edu/wiki/index.php/S. Agnes Kummer">http://scrc.swem.wm.edu/wiki/index.php/S. Agnes Kummer</a>.

Scope and Contents

Diary, 1863-1866 (132 pp.) of S. Agnes Kummer of Baltimore, Maryland. In addition to her life in Baltimore where S. Agnes Kummer taught school, she documents her travels within the United States, as well as to England and France.  Entries are written in English  for the most part with some expressions and sentences in French.The diary begins in France on an overseas trip in March 1863 and concludes with her description of a 1866 summer trip through the American Northeast into Canada. She comments on the Civil War and states on April 13, 1865: "The South has gone from bad to worse - Richmond has fallen & the rejoicings thereupon had not ceased when we were stunned with the announcement of Lee's surrender. All seems to be lost for the poor Confederacy." On April 15, 1865 she comments on the "frightful crime" of President Lincoln's assassination: "It is the darkest day of this dark period of American history." Additional people and events referenced in her diary can be found in the finding aid/inventory link below.Also included in the diary is a typewritten letter from Laurie Leadbeater Hibbert of Nahsville, Tennessee to 'cousin Edith.' A relationship to the diary writer is not established.

Index Terms

Genre/Form of Material:

• Diaries

Geographic Name:

• Europe--Description and travel.
• France--Description and travel--19th century.
• Great Britain--Description and travel--19th century.
• United States--History--Civil War, 1861-1865--Diaries
• United States--History--Civil War, 1861-1865--Women--Sources

Topical Term:

• Women--Diaries.

Additional Information