Overview
Diary of Marie Barrows Streeter in which she relates her divorce from her first husband, marriage to her second husband, illnesses, social engagements, and a sea voyage from New York City to Java.
Dates
- Creation: 1876-1878
Language of Materials
Materials in English.
Access Restrictions:
Access. Collection is open for research.
Conditions Governing Use
Copyright. Copyright in the papers created by Marie Barrows Streeter may be held by the author, or the authors' heirs or assigns.
Copying. Papers may be copied in accordance with the library's usual procedures.
Extent
1 folderThe collection consists of a single diary written by Marie Barrows Streeter. She relates her daily activities; travel by ship and train from Savannah, Georgia, to Montgomery, Georgia; calls made on various friends in the Montgomery, Georgia, area; her return to Patterson, New Jersey; books she has read; sewing projects, etc. She also relates her unhappiness with her first husband Gus whom she divorced in November 1876. It appears that she may have undergone an abortion at Lenox Presbyterian Hospital in New York City in order to sever all ties to her first husband so that she could marry ship captain Diamond Streeter. She writes "My entrance to the ward, was one of the most dreadful ordeals of my life... I should wonder what my own darling would say if he knew where I was going? I do not think he would disapprove of the course I was taking, at least I hope not, for I want his approval in all I do. Oh God grant that I may be free to love him when he returns... This is my first decisive step towards making myself free. I have written a letter of explanation to brother John to show Gus if he likes... Following another dreadful day, and after spending the night in uncontrollable fits of weeping, I have cried almost incessantly all day, but Dr. Charles Roof, the house physician, has been very kind and offered to do all he could for me." Streeter also relates several more hospital visits; visits to friends in New York City; her marriage to Captain Diamond Streeter; and a sea voyage from New York City to Java in 1878.
BIOGRAPHY
Marrie Barrows Streeter was born to a Mr. and Mrs. Turnbull and had one brother, John Trumbull. Marie Barrows Streeter divorced her first husband, Gus Barrows, in November 1876; she married Captain Diamond Streeter in October 1877 and made two sea voyages with him (1877-1878).
Immediate Source of Acquisition
Accession number: 85-M5
The diary of Marie Barrows Streeter was given to the Schlesinger Library by Rosemary Hyman in March 1985.
Processing Information
Processed: July 1988
By: Jane Knowles
Updated and additional description added: March 2021
By: Mark Vassar
The Schlesinger Library attempts to provide a basic level of preservation and access for all collections, and does more extensive processing of higher priority collections as time and resources permit. Finding aids may be updated periodically to account for new acquisitions to the collection and/or revisions in arrangement and description.
Genre / Form
Geographic
Topical
- Author
- Arthur and Elizabeth Schlesinger Library on the History of Women in America
- Language of description
- eng
- Sponsor
- Processing of this collection was made possible by the Elsie Rod Fund in the Schlesinger Library.
- EAD ID
- sch01872
Repository Details
Part of the Schlesinger Library, Radcliffe Institute Repository
The preeminent research library on the history of women in the United States, the Schlesinger Library documents women's lives from the past and present for the future. In addition to its traditional strengths in the history of feminisms, women’s health, and women’s activism, the Schlesinger collections document the intersectional workings of race and ethnicity, gender, sexuality, and class in American history.