D. H. Ramsey Library Special Collections and University Archives

Louisa Pitkin Diary
M2003.5

Summary Information

Repository
UNC Asheville Special Collections and University Archives
Title
Louisa Pitkin Diary
ID
M2003.5
Date [inclusive]
1919-1923
Extent
0.2 Linear feet  ; 1 box
Physical Description
Diary measuring approximately 3.5" x 6", with handwritten daily entries. Photocopied sheets of diary pages.
Location
Located in Special Collections row 7 section 5
Language
English

Preferred Citation

Louisa Pitkin Diary, D.H. Ramsey Library, Special Collections, University of North Carolina at Asheville 28804

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Biographical Note

Louisa Burr Pitkin was born in New Haven Connecticut, on 30 September 1850 (or possibly 1853), and lived in New York and Detroit, Michigan. She seems to have traveled widely. For example, there is a record of her losing her passport in London in August 1914, and that she had left the US in July 1912. The obituary for her sister Mary Pitkin records that, Louisa, Mary, and another sister (possibly Anna), settled in Tyron, NC in 1916. The sisters seem to have spent the rest of their lives in the town, with Anna dying there in 1929 aged 84, Mary in 1942 aged 97, and Louisa dying on April 17, 1948.

[Source: records located through Ancestry.com]

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Scope and Contents

Handwritten diary of Louisa Burr Pitkin , with entries for each day from January 1 1919, to December 31, 1923. Daily entries describe Pitkin's location, the weather, and activities of Pitkin, her family and friends. At the rear of the diary are lists of names and dates, addresses, and clippings of death notices. An inscription on the flyleaf suggests Pitkin obtained the diary at Christmas 1918, in Washington, DC. During the years that Louisa Pitkin wrote in the diary she seems to have spent most of her time In Tryon NC, but she also indicates that she traveled to Washington DC, as well as towns in western North Carolina, and the upstate of South Carolina.

 

Photocopied, and enlarged, pages from the diary are also included. Entries for 1919 and 1920 have been transcribed.

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Administrative Information

Publication Information

UNC Asheville Special Collections and University Archives

Ramsey Library, CPO # 1500
One University Heights
Asheville, North Carolina, 28804-8504
828.251.6645
speccoll@unca.edu

Rights

No restrictions. Any display, publication, or public use must credit the D.H. Ramsey Library, Special Collections, University of North Carolina at Asheville. Copyright retained by the creators of certain items in the collection, or their descendants, as stipulated by United States copyright law.

Source of Acquisition

Donated by Fawn Fitter

Processing Information

Originally processed by Special Collections staff, 2005. New finding aid and biographical information by Colin Reeve, May 2017

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Collection Inventory

Box 1 

Handwritten "Daylogue" [diary] of Louisa B Pitkin, January 1, 1919 to December 31, 1923. 

Photocopy of diary , January to July 

Photocopy of diary, August to December, and lists