In my post about Denbigh notebooks, I linked to a site that had a photo of a Denbigh notebook from the 1960s: Drew Family Diaries. These diaries are worth a post of their own!
Roger Drew created a website to share this amazing collection of diaries kept by members of his family, starting with his grandparents:
The diaries begin in 1914 and mostly describe daily life in Nottinghamshire and Norfolk, England, with occasional mentions of historic events. Roger’s grandfather’s diaries run from 1914 to 1975, and his mother’s cover 1946 to 2016. Roger himself has kept diaries, and found some that he used in the 1970s and 1980s.
The website shares photos of various diaries and provides a summary and index to their contents. While some of the details might not be of interest to people outside the family, the site makes for fascinating browsing, as Roger has done a great job of researching some of the cultural references mentioned in the diaries and turning the collection into a kind of documentary history of everyday life in the 20th century. The diaries record events like the family’s first telephone being installed, and their first TV, which 19 people gathered around to watch Queen Elizabeth II’s coronation.
The website also shows various interior pages of the diaries. There is a link where you can see a diary page from today’s date 50 or 100 years ago. Very cool!
As objects, the diaries are fascinating. You see how certain brands or styles of diaries repeat for several years, and then shift, either because different models were readily available or perhaps because the user’s preferences shifted. The “Heiress” diaries from the 1950s are particularly charming!
I’m wildly envious of this diary collection. And not just because I love collecting notebooks! My own grandparents’ lifespans were similar to Roger’s, and I often think about the times they lived through, wishing I’d known the questions I wanted to ask them when they were still alive. My grandmother told lots of great stories about her youth, when she was a “flapper,” and various family members were always saying we should record her on tape, or later, on video. I don’t think anyone did, and as far as I know, she never wrote any of them down or kept a diary. I would love to have a written record of how she lived, even if it was just mundane details about what she ate or bought or watched on TV. That Roger Drew has been able to preserve his family diaries and share them with others is a rare and precious gift.
Many thanks to Roger for allowing me to share some of his images!
I love this. I’d love to get my hands on those notebooks just to get a sense of the history written in them. A lot of them look like bonded leather bound.
Thank you so much for featuring my site and the very kind words contained in your review. Thanks too for Amber’s kind comment. I found that the diaries kind of sucked me in and have involved me in quite a bit of detective work! For example, you mention the Heiress diaries. I came across an entry in my mum’s diary referring to “First Heiress”. Initially, I thought it was a novel title but it turned out to be when she bought her first copy of the Heiress magazine.
What a fantastic collection! Thanks for sharing it with us!