Perry Miller Collection on the Colonial Religious Experience in America

Tweet

THE LOCATION OF THIS POST HAS MOVED. YOU WILL BE REDIRECTED TO OUR NEW WEBSITE IN 5 SECONDS OR LESS. IF THAT DOES NOT WORK CLICK HERE

The Robert D. Farber University Archives & Special Collections Department holds an extensive collection of seventeenth- and eighteenth-century works of religion, history, and law as part of the personal library of the late Harvard University Professor Perry Miller, who died December 9, 1963. Brandeis University acquired the collection in the fall of 1964 from Miller’s widow, Elizabeth Miller. While most of Perry Miller’s nearly 2,500-item collection resides in the Bertha and Jacob Goldfarb University Library, Archives & Special Collections houses a small portion of about 200 rare and first-edition books that have significant historic and literary value.

Born in Chicago, 1905, Miller received his bachelor’s degree from the University of Chicago in 1928 before beginning graduate work in American Literature at Harvard in 1931. Miller attributes his decision to study seventeenth-century New England Puritanism—despite his professor’s warnings that the field had been exhausted—to an “epiphany” he experienced as a young man while hunting adventure on the banks of the Congo River. “It was given to me, equally disconsolate on the edge of a jungle in central Africa,” Miller wrote in 1956, “to have thrust upon me the mission of expounding what I took to be the innermost propulsion of the United States….”1 Back in graduate school, Miller began his search for the “drums of case oil flowing out of the inexhaustible wilderness of America,” in the Puritan migration from Europe to North America.2

Miller challenged the dominant view of Puritans as repressive and reactionary, portraying New England’s founders as emotional individuals who struggled to balance the overwhelming experience of migration with absolute piety and the belief that the future of mankind depended on the success of their settlement. Thus, New England Puritans shared a profound sense of mission that informed the establishment and guided the development of Massachusetts Bay Colony. How Puritans grappled with, explained, and justified that mission—or, as the title of Miller’s 1956 book suggests, Errand into the Wilderness—in light of the extreme challenges and obstacles preventing its success provides the foundation for subsequent American intellectual life.

Miller filled his extensive library with the works of Puritan theologians and seventeenth-century intellectuals who profoundly influenced New England colonial leaders. Among Miller’s books is a 1634 edition of John Preston’s The New Covenant, or The Saints Portion. Miller considered this work, originally published in 1630, a “prerequisite to any understanding of thought and theology in seventeenth-century New England.”3 In it, Preston, an English Puritan minister and master of Emanuel College, laid out the philosophy of the covenant—the idea of a mutual obligation between God and the individual—which, he argued constituted “one of the main points in Divinitie.”4

In addition to Preston, Miller also managed to find and purchase a first edition of Samuel Willard’s A Compleat Body of Divinity, which at the time of its publication in Boston, 1726, represented the largest volume produced by a colonial press.5 The tome consists of weekly lectures delivered by Willard from 1688 until his death in 1707 in which he attempted to “clarify and explicate” Puritanism in light of Anglican attacks. Two of Willard’s students at the Old South Church in Boston, where he had been pastor since 1678, published A Compleat Body of Divinity posthumously.6 Nearly 250 years after its publication, Miller wrote that the book continued to serve as “a landmark in American publishing and a magnificent summation of the Puritan intellect.”7

Although famous for his contribution to the scholarship on Puritan thought and American intellectual history, Miller also taught American literature, including “an unforgettable course” on American Romanticism.8 The Harvard professor thus filled his library with several works by important Romantic authors, including James Fenimore Cooper and Washington Irving. Cooper, whose Last of the Mohicans earned him recognition as a first-class novelist, also wrote travel literature. Miller’s collection includes an original copy of Cooper’s two-volume Sketches of Switzerland, published in 1836 as the first part of his travel series, Gleanings in Europe. Miller explained the success and appeal of Cooper’s work, writing that the author “more than any other single figure held up the mirror in which several generations of Americans saw the image of themselves they most wished to see—a free-ranging individualist.”9

The wide range of subjects covered in Miller’s library supports the notion that the professor viewed himself as free-thinking. In addition to his immense collection of books on history and literature, Miller also acquired rare and first editions on science and law. These include tracts by Hugo Grotius and Matthew Hale, as well as Henry Pemberton’s A View of Sir Isaac Newton’s Philosophy. Pemberton, an English physician, served as Newton’s “collaborator and disciple,” and indicated in the preface that he tried to convey Newton’s philosophy in simple and non-mathematical terms.10

Miller’s library also sustains his strong belief that “the mind of man is the basic factor in human history.”11 From seventeenth-century Christian theology to nineteenth-century transcendental literature, Miller acquired works that impressed American intellectual development. Additionally, these important works of religion, history, law, science, and literature reveal Miller’s steadfast commitment to uncovering the motor of the American experience.

See a catalog of the Perry Miller collection here.

description by Alexandra Wagner Lough, Archives & Special Collections Assistant and PhD candidate in History

------------------------

1. Perry Miller. Errand Into the Wilderness. Cambridge, Mass.: President and Fellows of Harvard College, 1956, viii.

2. Ibid.

3. Ibid., 59.

4. Preston, The New Covenant, quoted in Miller, Errand Into the Wilderness, 59.

5. Richard P. Gildrie, “Willard, Samuel.” American National Biography Online. http://www.anb.org/articles/01/01-00974.html. Accessed October 20, 2010.

6. “Samuel Willard.” Dictionary of American Biography. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1936. Accessed online at Gale Biography in Context, October 20, 2010.

7. Miller, Nature’s Nation. Cambridge, Mass.: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1967, 121.

8. “Perry Miller.” The Harvard Crimson. December 10, 1963. http://www.thecrimson.harvard.edu/article/1963/12/10/perry-miller-pin-the-forest-when/. Accessed September 16, 2010.

9. Miller, Nature’s Nation, 10.

10. I. Bernard Cohen, “Pemberton’s Translation of Newton’s Principia, With Notes on Motte’s Translation.” ISIS 54: 177 (1963): 319.

11 Miller, Errand Into the Wilderness, ix.

Nuremberg Chronicle (Liber Chronicarum)

Tweet

THE LOCATION OF THIS POST HAS MOVED. YOU WILL BE REDIRECTED TO OUR NEW WEBSITE IN 5 SECONDS OR LESS. IF THAT DOES NOT WORK CLICK HERE

The Robert D. Farber University Archives & Special Collections possesses two rare editions of Dr. Hartmann Schedel’s Nuremberg Chronicle: the original Latin first edition of 1493 (given by the Bibliophiles of Brandeis University), and the vernacular edition published in German several months later (the gift of Lewis K. and Elizabeth Land). Composed in the fifteenth century in the city of Nuremberg—for which the book is named—the Chronicle is “the first humanistic and scholastic world history in Germany.”1 Encompassing religious, secular, and mythical themes, this work is essentially a recompilation of ancient histories and medieval chronicles. The Chronicle illustrates the strengths and limitations of early modern history, Renaissance learning, and fifteenth-century understanding of the world.

The most impressive aspect of the Chronicle is its exquisite printing and finely detailed woodcuts, which took over two years to complete. It was revolutionary for its incorporation of text with related images—virtually unheard-of prior to the sixteenth century. The creation of the book required an artist to draw an image before turning it over to be carved into a woodcut to be used for future printings. Designed and illustrated by Michael Wohlgemut and Wilhelm Pleydenwurff, the book contains over 1,800 images that are made from over six hundred individual woodcuts—more than any other previously printed volume.2 A teenaged Albrecht Dürer, who would go on to become a famed Renaissance painter, apprenticed under Wohlgemut during the initial phases of the illustration of the Chronicle, leading to strong indications that some of the designs can be attributed directly to his hand, or at least to his influence.3

The Nuremberg Chronicle was first published by Anton Koberger, Europe’s largest printer, in Latin in June of 1493 for the elite and religious readership, with a subsequent German edition released in December for the literate upper-middle class. The German version, translated by the Nuremberg’s Treasury writer, George Alt, is slightly shorter and omits more esoteric detail than its Latin counterpart. Another small difference lies in the typeset employed by Koberger. The German edition features Schwabacher type, derived from a semi-Gothic form, while the Latin edition features the Italian Rotunda common to similar texts of the era.4 While eight hundred Latin editions and only four hundred and eight German editions were printed, it was the later, smaller-run vernacular translation that enjoyed a higher proportionate degree of success after publication. Today, only three hundred German editions exist throughout the world, and about four hundred Latin editions.

Among other images, the massive collection of woodcuts prominently features European cityscapes, Biblical scenes, and royal and papal portraits, as well as depictions of legendary scenes and figures. For instance, a portrait of Merlin, the sorcerer of Arthurian fame, can be found displayed among those of true historical figures, such as Attila the Hun or the crown heads of Europe.

Perhaps the most controversial and incendiary aspect of the book, defaced in numerous copies but intact in both Brandeis copies, is the image of Pope Joan. The Nuremberg Chronicle perpetuated a legend that was supported by men such as Martin Luther and even promulgated by some authors and filmmakers well into the twenty-first century.5 The tale claimed that a woman disguised as a man was elected as a pope of the Catholic Church in the ninth century, only to be exposed when she gave birth to a child during a service. The image of Joan, depicted with her newborn child, can be found discreetly among the portraits of actual Catholic popes. The Chronicle “breaks with conventional narratives, in which the beginning of Joan’s motherhood marks the end of her pontificate, to portray her as simultaneously pope and mother.”6 Once again, it is through imagery that Schedel’s work most clearly presents the blending of fact and lore as history.

The Robert D. Farber University Archives & Special Collections’ editions of the Nuremberg Chronicle provide researchers with access to a scarce historical text still vibrant in its original bold black ink, virtually unaltered since leaving a Nuremberg printer over six centuries ago. The Chronicle can provide an understanding not only of Renaissance knowledge, but also of art, culture, and the development of printing.

description by Craig Bruce Smith, Archives & Special Collections Assistant and PhD candidate in History

1. Wilson, Adrian. The Making of the Nuremberg Chronicle. Amsterdam: Nico Israel, 1976, p. 21.

2. Ibid., p. 42.

3. Ibid., p. 60.

4. Ibid., p. 184.

5. Stanford, Peter. The Legend of Pope Joan: In Search of the Truth. New York: Henry Holt and Company, 1998, p. 104.

6. Rustici, Craig M. The Afterlife of Pope Joan: Deploying the Popess Legend in Early Modern England. Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press, 2006, p. 27.

Secondary sources:

Boureau, Alain. The Myth of Pope Joan. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2001.

“Nuremberg Chronicle,” Morse Library, Beloit College. http://www.beloit.edu/nuremberg/index.htm

“Nuremberg Chronicle,” Special Collections, University of Maryland. http://www.lib.umd.edu/RARE/Exhibits/Nuremberg/Illustrations.html

Rustici, Craig M. The Afterlife of Pope Joan: Deploying the Popess Legend in Early Modern England. Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press, 2006.

Stanford, Peter. The Legend of Pope Joan: In Search of the Truth. New York: Henry Holt and Company, 1998.

Wilson, Adrian. The Making of the Nuremberg Chronicle. Amsterdam: Nico Israel, 1976.

Wood, Clement. The Woman Who Was Pope: A Biography of Pope Joan, 853-855 AD. New York: William Faro, Inc., 1931.

Dante's Divine Comedy, censored by Spanish Inquisition

Tweet

THE LOCATION OF THIS POST HAS MOVED. YOU WILL BE REDIRECTED TO OUR NEW WEBSITE IN 5 SECONDS OR LESS. IF THAT DOES NOT WORK CLICK HERE

The Robert D. Farber University Archives & Special Collections Department at Brandeis houses a number of rare works by Dante Alighieri, such as the Aldine Press’s first edition of Le terze rime di Dante (1502), Henry Longfellow’s translation of the Divine Comedy (1867), and Dante col sito, et forma dell’inferno tratta dalla istessa descrittione del poeta (1515). A 1564 edition of La Divina Comedia from Arévalo, Spain, however, is particularly noteworthy for several reasons.

In the 1564 edition held by Brandeis, the poem is encircled by commentaries from Christoforo Landino, Allesandro Vellutello, and Francesco Sansovino, all of whom were well-known Dante critics of their respective times. A consideration of the historical context of the poem and its criticisms is also interesting, in light of Spain’s treatment of Dante and other libri vulgari during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. Last, and perhaps most fascinating of all, specific passages of the critics’ commentaries, along with verses of the poem, were expurgated by a Spanish Inquisition cleric. Fortunately for the reader, the cleric’s ink faded over the years, allowing one to read the poem’s redacted portions.

This edition of the Divine Comedy is the first of three published by the Sessa family of Venetian printers. The title page is adorned with a portrait by Giorgio Vasari of Dante caricatured with an enlarged nose (because of the exaggerated nose, this edition in Italy is referred to as the Edizioni del gran naso), and the last page contains the Sessa family’s printer mark: a cat, seated on a pillow with a mouse in its mouth. Throughout the book, scenes from the Divine Comedy are shown in beautiful woodcuts.

Editor Francesco Sansovino (1521-1583) beautifully combined his own commentaries with those of two other well-known critics, Alessandro Vellutello (1473-?) and Cristoforo Landino (1424-1498) in one book, to create an innovative hybrid. Sansovino, a versatile Roman publisher and man of letters, often wrote on Boccaccio, Dante, and the city of Venice. The Florentine Humanist Landino was a prolific writer and Chair of Poetry and Rhetoric at Florentine’s Studio who advocated the use of vernacular Italian, wrote commentaries on the Aeneid, and lectured on Petrarch. Vellutello, a Lucchese academic active in Venice during the early 1500s, not only wrote on Dante but also was a Petrarch enthusiast.

The commentaries by these three renowned writers are an excellent find for early modern historians, Italian linguists, or dantisti. Comparatively, the commentaries suffered a great deal more redaction than the poem. Specifically, the commentaries of Landino and Vellutello, and a few versus of the Inferno and Paradiso, were condemned. Why the cleric chose to completely ignore Sansovino’s commentary is unknown, yet one particular variable may shed light on the matter: the Florentine editor dedicated his edition of the poem to Pope Pius IV.

The Divine Comedy is written in the first person and tells of Dante’s journey through the three realms of the dead—Inferno (Hell), Purgatorio (Purgatory), and Paradiso (Paradise)—with his guides: the Roman poet Virgil, and, subsequently, Dante’s courtly love, Beatrice. Hell is described as an inverted cone with the point being Lucifer’s land at the center of the world. The pilgrimage from Hell is a climb to the foot of, and then up to the top of, the Mountain of Purgatory. Along the way Dante passes warriors, kings and emperors, fellow poets, popes, and citizens of Florence, amending the sins of their life on Earth. On the summit is the Earthly Paradise, where the two meet Beatrice, and Virgil subsequently departs. Dante is led through the various spheres of heaven, and the poem ends with a vision of the deity.

While the reader accompanies Dante on his journey, it quickly becomes apparent that the number 3—the Trinity—is prominent in the work. The author’s entire journey lasts from the evening of Maundy Thursday to the Wednesday after Easter of 1300. The poem is composed of over 14,000 lines divided into three cantiche (canticas), which make up the deceased’s realms: Hell, Purgatory, and Paradise each consisting of 33 canti (cantos). The Poet uses the scheme terza rima, a hendecasyllabic (lines of eleven syllables), with the lines composing tercets based on the rhyming scheme aba, bcb, cdc, ded....

The poem recognizes several historical incidents and people, but the primary influence is the Florentine politics of Dante’s time. During central Italy’s political struggle between Guelphs and Ghibellines, Dante sided with the Guelphs, who favored the papacy over the Holy Roman Emperor. At the beginning of the fourteenth century, Florence’s Guelphs divided into the White Guelphs and the Black Guelphs. Dante supported the Whites, who were exiled in 1302 after troops under Charles of Valois entered the city at the request of Pope Boniface VIII, who supported the Blacks. The exile lasted the rest of Dante’s life, and its influence on the Divine Comedy is evident in his views of politics on the peninsula and prophecies of his exile and of the eternal damnation of some of his opponents; some of these views and criticisms of the church were seen as heretical by the Spanish Inquisitors.

The Spanish Inquisition was the tribunal court system used by both the Catholic Church and Spanish Catholic monarchs. Founded in 1478 by Ferdinand II and Isabella to maintain Catholic orthodoxy in their kingdoms, the Inquisition was under the direct control of the Spanish monarchy. The Spanish Church worked actively to curb the spread of heretical ideas in Spain by using the Catholic Church’s Index Librorum Prohibitorum (Index of Forbidden Books) over the course of several years. The Index’s purpose was to stop the contamination of the faith or the corruption of beliefs and morals of Roman Catholics according to canon law through the reading of immoral or theologically erroneous texts. The Index included books of all genres, yet particular attention was dedicated to religious works, specifically vernacular translations of the bible.

At the outset, inclusion in the Index meant complete censure of a text; however, this proved not only impractical, but contrary to the goal of maintaining a well-educated, literate clergy. In time, a compromise was agreed upon in which trained Inquisition officials inked out words, or entire passages, of unacceptable texts, allowing the expurgated editions to circulate. The readings, including the Divine Comedy, were regarded as books that no good Catholic might read until they had been redacted by the Holy Office. A cleric would expurgate those passages of text deemed offensive. Fortunately, the 1564 copy of the Divine Comedy at Brandeis contains an original document pasted on the back of the title page, signed by one of the Inquisitors, that states that the necessary cancellations have been made in this copy. The message, in Spanish, reads: “Arévalo, Spain, on April 16, 1614, this book has been purged in accordance with the Expurgatory Catalogue of Don Fernando de Riezas, Head Inquisitor; so empowered by the Commission of the Holy Office....” The redacted passages can easily be found upon examination of the book; the ink used in the cancellation has essentially faded out, and the printed words underneath have reappeared, enabling one to read the entirety of the incriminated passages without difficulty.

The Divine Comedy is best described as an allegory: that is, each canto can contain many alternative meanings. Dante’s allegory is complex and multilayered, showing the moral, the historical, the anagogical, the political, and the literal. Below are the three excerpts from the poem that were once hidden, but are now visible again, coupled with commentaries that may help the reader understand what exactly the intentions were of the Supreme Poet.

INFERNO CANTO XI 7—9

d’un grand’ avello, ov’io vidi una scritta

che dicea: “Anastasio papa guardo,

lo qual trasse Fotin de la vita dritta.”

On a great tomb, I saw that it was inscribed:

“Pope Anastasius I contain, the Pope

Photinus lured away from the correct path.”

A rather amusing medieval tradition has confused Anastasius II, pope from 496 to 498, and his namesake and contemporary Anastasius I, emperor from 491 to 518. For many centuries, Anastasius II was widely believed to be a heretic because he supposedly allowed Photinus, a deacon of Thessalonica who followed the heresy of Acacius (Byzantine Emperor, patriarch of Constantinople), to take communion. Acacius denied the divine origin of Christ, holding that Christ was naturally begotten and conceived in the same way as mankind. Dante was simply following the accepted tradition of the time concerning Pope Anastasius’s heretical persuasion.

INFERNO CANTO XIX 106—117

Di voi pastor s’accorse’l Vangelista;

quando colei che siede soura l’acque

puttaneggiar co i regi a lui fu vista;

quella, che con le sette teste nacque,

et da la diece corna hebb’argomento,

fin che virtute al suo marito piacque.

Fatto v’havete dio d’oro e d’argento;

et che altro è da voi a l’idolatre,

senon ch’egli uno, e voi n’orate centro?

Ahi, Constantin, di quanto mal fu matre,

non la tua conversion, ma quella dote

che da te prese il primo ricco patre!

You shepherds the Evangelist envisioned

when he was witness to She who sits

on the waters playing whore with kings:

She the one who was born with seven heads

and from her ten horns that could draw strength

as long as virtue and love pleased her spouse.

Gold and silver are gods you praise!

how do you differ from the idolator,

only he worships one, you all a score?

Oh, Constantine, what evil marked the hour,

not by your conversion, but of that fee

the first wealthy Father took from you in gift!

In this excerpt, John the Evangelist describes his vision of corrupt Rome. To Dante, the one who “sits upon the waters” represents the Vatican, which has been corrupted by the simoniacal activities of previous popes, or the “shepherds” of the church. The seven heads represent the seven sacraments, while the ten horns represent the 10 commandments that allowed the Church its strength as long as the pope “suo marito” ruled justly. The verb puttaneggiare is reminiscent of the verb simoneggiare, which appears in Nicholas’s speech and was actually invented by Dante. The linguistic link shows the reader evidence of the creative relationship between simony and prostitution. In fact, simony was defined as a type of prostitution of the Church motivated by greed. The significance of this verse is debatable and could be viewed as “For every idol they worship, you worship a hundred.” More likely, however, is that this verse contains a reference to the golden calf of the Israelites and therefore could be construed to mean “You worship not just one idol, but everything that is of gold.” According to a legend universally accepted in the Middle Ages as historical fact, Constantine the Great (Roman Emperor 306-336), before he removed his government to Byzantium in 330, abandoned to the Church his temporal power in the West. The move, according to a document known as the Donation of Constantine, stemmed from Constantine’s decision to place the western part of the empire under the jurisdiction of the Church in order to repay Pope Sylvester for healing him of leprosy. The Donation of Constantine was proved to be a forgery by Lorenzo Valla in the fifteenth century, yet was accepted as truth in the Middle Ages. Dante did not doubt the authenticity of a document so widely accepted as genuine in his day, but he did deny that it had any juridical value. The author reflects this tradition in his statement to Constantine, the man who would ultimately be responsible for the present corruption of the Church.

PARADISO CANTO IX 136-142

A questo intende’l papa e’cardinali;

non vanno I lor pensieri a Nazarette,

là dove Gabrïello aperse l’ali.

Ma Vaticano e l’altre parti elette

di Roma che son state cimitero

a la milizia che Pietro seguette,

tosto libere fien de l’adultero. So Pope and Cardinals mind no other things;

their thoughts do not go out to Nazareth

where Gabriel once opened his wings wide.

But the Vatican and other chosen parts,

of Rome that you all have been, from the first,

the cemetery of those faithful men

that followed Peter and were his soldiers,

shall soon be free of this adultery.

Nazareth is the scene of the Annunciation, where Gabriel “opened his wings” before Mary. The Vatican hill in Rome is the location of both St. Peter’s basilica and the Vatican palace. The papal residence, during Dante’s life, was the Lateran Palace. The Vatican has been the usual residence of the popes since their return from Avignon in the latter half of the fourteenth century. Additionally, the Vatican hill, the location of Peter’s and other early Christians’ martyrdom, is considered to be the most sacred area in Rome. The meaning of these closing verses is widely disputed, and they may refer to the removal of the Papal Court to Avignon in 1305, or perhaps to the death of Boniface VIII. More obvious, however, are the final lines. The influence of money, greed, and corruption from Florence produced corruption that stretched all the way to the Vatican. Thus, evangelical purpose died with the martyrs. Once again the reader sees a greedy Church government perpetuated by corrupt pontiffs, and the prostitution of things holy for personal gain.

The 1564 Brandeis copy of Dante’s Divine Comedy thus acquires a very special interest and importance, particularly as a document of Inquisitorial censure. This edition was made the object of severe excises, many more of which can be found in the commentaries.

description and translations by Aaron Wirth, Archives & Special Collections Assistant and PhD candidate in the Comparative History Program

Diary of a World War I Aid Worker

Tweet

THE LOCATION OF THIS POST HAS MOVED. YOU WILL BE REDIRECTED TO OUR NEW WEBSITE IN 5 SECONDS OR LESS. IF THAT DOES NOT WORK CLICK HERE

The Brandeis University Special Collections contains a number of materials documenting twentieth-century European conflicts, including the two world wars. Most recently, the department acquired the diary of an American Red Cross worker (Anna Weimar, b. 1869) who was stationed at the U.S. Navy base in Nantes, France, during the final months of World War I. Weimar's diary spans a full year (June 28, 1918 to July 7, 1919) and ends just eight days after the establishment of the League of Nations.

A volunteer worker with the American Red Cross in Chicago, Weimar was forty-nine years old when she sailed to Europe in the summer of 1918. Though her duties were primarily clerical in nature, Weimar spent much of her time tending to patients at the naval hospital in Nantes: writing letters for them, bringing treats, and even placing flowers at their grave sites when they died. One senses the emotional upheaval of her work and the sadness that pervades many entries. Weimar is also candid about the gruesomeness of the war. In one entry from October 12, 1918, she writes:

Today I saw the worst case I've seen thus far a very nice blond boy had his whole chin, a piece of his tongue, his right cheek – and just as the shrapnel struck him he was in the act of pulling his helmet down & it took off his right thumb – he can only take liquids his front teeth & lower jaw being gone – he tried to tell me he wanted some coca – the kind you pour hot water on & drink – he can't get enough to eat. I told him Id [sic] have some for him in 15 minutes – in ten minutes I was back with a pound can full – a lb of chocolate and a jar of malted milk – I just asked one nurse after another until I found one who had it – and I got it – I'll see that he has plenty to eat of cocoa & chocolate –

In another entry from Nov. 6, 1918—five days before the Armistice—Weimar writes the following:

I feel half sick today and have the blues a lot of boys came in today in the rain & they had to be put into those cold, bare wards – they had had no food for 24 hrs & were almost overlooked – one is desperately sick with pneumonia & they cant find Hicks to look after him – it has poured rain for two days & nights. The place is a mud hole – & all the pneumonias are worse – they had the delirious Greek with poor Anderson who was afraid of him – then they moved Anderson out of the little room & put the bad pneumonia case in with the Greek – I wish it would stop raining – McCready can hardly get his breath. at 9:30 I made some hot chocolate in my room for Kathleen & French – its [sic] against all rules to have a man come into our rooms but I did it anyway – he is a convalescent patient & looked as tho’ he would have a chill—they were both drenched – the Swedes all cackled –

There are moments of levity in Weimar's diary, though they, too, are sometimes punctuated by heaviness. In her entry for Nov. 11, 1918, Weimer writes in bold at the top of the page: "PEACE signed Today." She goes on to say:

Today was a happy day in France – Peace between Germany & the allies was signed today or rather an Armistice – The P.M. was made a holiday – men, women and children danced in the streets of Nantes – they played "Ring around the rosy" with an American soldier in the middle for the "Rosy" They all acted like happy children, the[y] dropped the shroud they have worn for 4 yrs Tonight we had a train of wounded men come in from the front. It was the worst train load we have had – the train was late, got in at 2 in the morning – While waiting I sat in my barrack window – a large silvery moon shown over the 3 beautiful pines near our barracks – a heavy vapor rose from the earth, at first thin & spiral like and it floated softly until it was about 4 ft from the ground, when it became denser & moved from side to side – I imagined it was the spirits of our boys who had played "Hookey" [sic] from heaven to celebrate the good news –

Weimar was stationed in Europe for another seven months following the Armistice and her journal is filled with descriptions of her travels and her impressions as a tourist. Her diary, which has found a permanent home at Brandeis, is a valuable first-person account of life as an aide and hospital worker in the European theater during the final phase of World War I.

description by Karen Adler Abramson, Associate Director for University Archives & Special Collections