The Diary

I've had two separate sites geared toward lovers of journals -- not the contents, but the books themselves -- link to me since I started this project. I figure there must be more people out there who'd like it if I posted a little more about it, so here goes:

Papa's diary is about six inches high by three-and-a-half inches wide. Its cover is a deep maroon and seems to have resisted aging and fading:




The words "National Diary 1924" are lightly embossed on the diagonal across the cover in an all-caps font I'm not familiar with:



The cover appears to be constructed of linen-lined cardboard material, and shows some wear and tear around the corners and binding:




The cream-colored pages show some browning along the edges, but remain resilient and not at all brittle.

A calendar for the year 1924 is printed on the inside cover. It looks like Papa practiced his signature a couple of times here (they read "A.H. Scheurman" because his given name was Avraham Hesh, though later he just signed his name as "Harry".) It looks like the book cost 59 cents, as indicated by a price hand-written in the upper left. (Apologies for the blurry image -- I can't get this page to sit flat on my scanner without damaging the diary's binding.)



A 1925 calendar is printed on the inside back cover. Papa's scratched a few figures here, along with what appears to be a phone number:



A chart of 1924 postal rates is printed on the last page, along with a little more of Papa's arithmetic:



A printed message, prompting the diary's owner to order a new diary for 1925, appears at the bottom of the November 1 page:



A reminder appears at the bottom of the December 1 page:



Alas, the order number this message refers to is not anywhere to be found, nor are any indications of the diary's manufacturer.