Herman Brackbill Journals

This project collects the text of the journals of Herman Brackbill. Herman kept a journal from 1937, when he was 20 years old, until shortly after the birth of his first child, Evelyn.

List of journals

 * 1937
 * 1938
 * 1939
 * 1940

A note on Herman's weeks
Herman and Jane followed a pretty consistent weekly pattern of activity, usually the following:


 * Work Monday through Friday, with a half day on Saturday
 * Laundry Monday morning
 * County Chorus practice Monday
 * Young people's choir on Wednesday
 * Adult choir on Thursday
 * Church and Sunday School on Sunday morning, dinner with family, then Christian Endeavor and church again on Sunday night.

The other hours were never idle, and were filled with visits with friends and family, meetings of the leadership of Christian Endeavor and the Women's Guild at the church, and other activities.

The journals as physical objects
The physical journals are lined, dated hardbound blank books from the National Blank Book Company in Holyoke, Mass. The inside covers of the journal contain reference information; in the 1939 journal, this includes counting-house calendars (a calendar on a single page with day numbers for each day) for 1939 and 1940; railway express shipping rules; and postage rates. The back of each journal contained blank, undated journal pages; twelve accounts pages, one for each month; and an address book section with alphabetic tabs.

The 1939 and 1940 journals were purchased at Reams, on Queen Street in Lancaster.