I came across what looks like a very interesting collection of notebooks:
Much like the celebrated journals from Lewis and Clark’s Expedition in early 19th century America, geologists with the Department of Natural Resources’ Missouri Geological Survey have been keeping journals since the mid-1800s. Thanks to a cooperative effort with the U.S. Geological Survey’s National Geological and Geophysical Data Preservation Program and the department, these journals known as “Geologist’s field notebooks†are being preserved and will be made available online as PDFs.
These fascinating notebooks are indispensable tools for geologists and they serve as guidebooks to the future as well as the past. They contain drawings, maps, and information and observations about Missouri’s geologic and hydrologic wonders, including important mineral and energy resources. Some contain carefully pressed leaves from trees, very old paper clips, advertisements, business cards and newspaper clips that shed light on aspects of Missouri geology and everyday life at the time. Geologists continue to use field notebooks to record information about geologic and hydrologic features while doing research in the great outdoors.
The archive is not the easiest to navigate, and you have to download big files to actually see any images, but there seem to be hundreds of notebooks fully scanned. So far, my favorites are the oldest notebooks from the 1800s, such as the one below. Beautiful handwriting!
Read more: Missouri Department of Natural Resources
These are excellent notebooks. It is worth noting that the pages written in pencil are still clearly legible while the ones written in ink are much lighter. So if you want to make a mark that lasts, use a pencil!