Robert Livingston Clark collection

The Robert Livingston Clark collection includes four diaries kept by Alabama farmer Robert Livingston Clark from 1840-1869 with some gaps. The diary entries usually are no more than one line, unless substantial news or events took place. The subjects of Clark’s daily entries include the weather, his travels, social gatherings including dinners, festivals and celebrations, deaths of friends and family, and farm management activity including planting, harvesting, and plowing. Clark planted and harvested a variety of crops including Irish potatoes, corn, peas, cabbage, wheat, tobacco, and cotton at his home in Athens, Alabama. He also owned a 1,500 acre plantation in or around Goodman, Tennessee that he mentions traveling to and which he sold in 1867. It appears that Clark also operated a piggery as he mentions hog counts and pounds of meat obtained.

Clark’s entries also contain frequent references to spirituality and religion, religious meetings, and temperance society happenings. Clark’s diaries span the Civil War and he expresses his reaction to the news of the war, his observations on increased local activity relating to war preparation, news of battles, concerns about the direction of the country, and an uncertainty about the War's outcome.