One Day in May, 1852 - Marie Ester Brandt

With the help of Marie Ester Brandt's diary, we can imagine traveling back in time all the way to 1852. On May 15 of that year, she wrote "Weather, more pleasant. Cecile went to Madison. Have been busy all day. Will Milsap brought "Foster on Calvinism" and "Bascum's Sermons" for us to read." Brandt lived in the town of Hanover, and her family rented rooms to Hanover students. So we can imagine students stopping to chat with her while she worked on sewing or cleaning the rugs (chores she mentioned that week). I wonder if they noticed her being visibly unhappy. She'd gotten a letter the previous day saying that her sister in Illinois was dying: "This is my birthday and sad news it brought," she'd written that day.

This diary is a treasure for the window it gives into life at Hanover in its early years, but there are so many more everyday details that we can't know. What kind of dinner did she serve the students who lived in her house? Did the students ever sing around a piano with the Brandts in the evening? What did they see in the morning on their walk from her house to campus? What was it like to sit in one of their classrooms?

. . .

Sources: Marie Ester Brandt diary, 12-17 May 1852, microfilm, Duggan Library, Hanover College (Hanover, Ind.). (Photo is available at https://palni.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/hcarchive/id/259/rec/3 [accessed 15 May 2020].)