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HESTER OAKLEY MEIGS : 1916 ORIGINAL MANUSCRIPT TRAVEL JOURNAL HANDWRITTEN BY A VERY YOUNG, VERY DELIGHTFUL AND INSIGHTFUL DIARIST WHOSE FAMILY FOUNDED SARAH LAWRENCE COLLEGE

24mo - over 5" - 5¾" tall. On offer is a delightful travel journey of a 12 year old girl crossing the North American continent in the early 20th Century. Hester Oakley Meigs was the grand-daughter of William Van Duzer Lawrence. Lawrence was a wealthy businessman who envisaged and then created the planned artist community of Bronxville, NY, about 15 miles north of Manhattan. He also established the liberal arts college Sarah Lawrence College and named it after his wife and Meigs' grand-mother, Sarah Lawrence. The journal is a small 6 inch by 3 1/2 inch notebook of 90 pages. It is about 50% complete, covering the time period July 27 to Sept 2nd, 1916. The journal is in good condition and the handwriting is quite legible. The journey was made by train with her parents when Meigs was 12 years old. Her excitement and joy shine through on each page. ... I am thrilled to tears! [July 27] - her first entry about upcoming trip. In Chicago, she notes ... went on an elevator ride for the first time in my life! [July 29] Upon seeing the mountains, she wrote ... I think the Rocky Mountains are perfectly wonderfu l [Aug 1] For lunch we stopped at a little place called Pawoska [properly Pahaska] It was as rustic as anything could be. It belonged to Buffalo Bill who is Mr. Cody [Aug 5] She has a good eye for details and each day diligently records where they visited, interesting incidents and happenings Her writing is clear and quite well structured for one her age: ... there was an old stamp mill where they separated the gold from the silver and both from the ore, Lu and I started out after lunch for the stamp mill in hopes that we might pick up a nuggets or two but nothing happened that way. On the way we discovered the tunnel where they dug for the mineral. We decided that if we had had a little nerve and an electric torch we would have gone in and explored it for we thought we would have gotten gold and silver in plenty and would have picked up bits that must have fallen down and not [been] picked up for i don't believe anybody has been in there. Two men we camping in the mill and I told Lu i wished them joy because I would have been scared to death for those spooks. [17 August]. This is a wonderfully innocent and clear depiction of her journey and her experiences. It gives a look at this long-lost world through the eyes of a curious and educated child. A historian would find many tidbits of information and observations that make the west at the turn of the last century come alive. An art historian would find this a valuable link with the very successful artists' colony at Lawrence Park /Bronxville.. Manuscript. Book Condition: Good+

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