Mar 18, 2010 - Sale 2207

Sale 2207 - Lot 172

Price Realized: $ 4,800
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 800 - $ 1,200
(NEW HAMPSHIRE.) Hurd, Clara May. Archive of 40 manuscript diaries. 40 volumes, most about 5 x 3 inches and 183 or 365 pages, some a bit larger; various original bindings and conditions, most contemporary calf with only minor wear. Washington, NH, 1872-1911
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Clara H. (May) Hurd (1827-1912) lived in the rural hill town of Washington, NH. Her husband Shubael W. Hurd was a shoemaker and farmer who also served several terms as town clerk, while Clara was a homemaker and also served as town librarian. She began keeping her diary in 1872, and continued for forty years. Hurd was an active member of her town's Spiritualist circle, and her early diaries in particular make frequent reference to her faith. For example: 'Fainted away this morn and S. sent for Dr. W. in a rush. No need to be frightened. The spirit land is very near & one of these faints will open the door for me some time' (24 June 1873). She was also a supporter of first-wave feminism who read Victoria Woodhull approvingly (22 February 1874) and wrote 'Perhaps nothing conduces more to happiness in domestic life than a feeling of perfect equality between husband & wife . . . marriage withers & dies if brought under the bane of authority' (memorandum after 1873 diary). Health, money, and her daughter's two failed marriages were frequent concerns. Clara's husband died of a stroke in late 1908, so she moved in with her children in Medford, MA, with the final diaries taking a more somber tone. "The old home is broken up and can never be renewed. I wonder if the sun refuses to shine in to these windows of that desolate home. Everything seems so chilled and frozen. The life is gone and only shadows left. Can we ever bring the sunshine back again?" (31 December 1908). A remarkable document of four decades of rural New England life.