Martha Hammett Blanchard Diary

1922

DAL.SMS.060

Collection Overview
Title: Martha Hammett Blanchard Diary
Date: 1922
Creator: Martha Hammett Blanchard
Call Number: DAL.SMS.060
Repository: Drew Archival Library
Location: Small Collections Box 3
Quantity: 1 folder
Language: English

Administrative Information:
Access Restrictions: The diary is open to researchers.  There are no restricted materials in the collection.
Acquisition Information: The diary was donated by Rebecca Chin, DAL.2013.024
Preferred form of citation: DAL.SMS.060, Martha Hammett Blanchard Diary in the Drew Archival Library of the Duxbury Rural & Historical Society
Finding Aid Prepared by: Meaghan Marohn, Sept. 2013.

Scope and Content:
The collection consists of the single diary written by Martha Jane (Hammett) Blanchard in 1922 when she was 71 years old.  The diary contains daily entries describing the weather, visits with friends, special outings, holidays and household chores.  Of special note is the entry  on Aug. 22 when lightening struck the Myles Standish Monument in Duxbury, knocking the statue’s head and torso to the ground.  The diary gives an idea of what the typical day of  a woman in 1922 would look like.  Other diaries kept by Martha Blanchard are in the possession of the Weymouth Historical Society.

Biographical Note:
Martha “Mattie” Hammond was born in 1821 in Long Plain, Acushnet, MA.  She married David Bates Blanchard of Weymouth on Sept. 28, 1872.  The couple lived in South Weymouth.  Their daughter, Daisy Maria, born in 1879, married Thomas V. Nash.  The Blanchard family spent summers in Duxbury, MA.  Martha died in 1940.

Also mentioned in the diary are family members and friends, Russel, David, Susie, Harry and Aunt Hannah.  The author also spends time with Edith Osgood.