1929-1933 Heartrending Journal of a Pennsylvania Woman Suffering the Impacts of a Failed Marriage During The Great Depression

On offer is a small journal that offers a very stark picture of the life of many women in America who fell on the hardest of times at the beginning of the Great Depression. It also includes a reference to what became known as the “Crime of the Century”.

The journal covers time periods in 1929 through 1933 but there are only sporadic entries made. The author of this journal is Mary Sample of Chambersburg, Pennsylvania. Our informal research has not been able to find any additional biographical information about her. However, there are a number of context clues that give us a picture of who she was. 

She was likely in her late 50s (based on her husband’s age, which is known). She did not have any children. What comes through very clearly is just how unhappy and dispirited she is. Her marriage to her husband has failed and any sense of security she may have had is gone. The journal, actually a small rent book, contains entries and receipts for rent paid for rooms she has rented.

The Great Depression has begun which will only make her living conditions worse. Without money, she is forced to return to her husband where her bed, a day bed, was put in a corner of the kitchen. Her health seems poor and she is beset with many problems.

An excerpt from her diary follows: 

“Today is a very hot day am not feeling so well am so weak and shaky but but guess will pull together again work awful hard to get fixed up but am getting there already took lots of money am about cleaned out cost me so much to move & buy things I needed but I am not going to worry or complain. I will get through somehow” [July , 1931].

Simple passages hint at the economic and social turmoil of the times. An excerpt to this effect follows: 

“Ana closed her store today. couldn’t make it go. Have not found the Dear Little Baby Linburg [sic]” [Feb 8, 1931]

This last reference is to the kidnapping and murder of Charles Lindbergh in March, 1931.

For a social historian, the various entries in the journal provide a stark illustration of the life many impoverished women faced in America during the Great Depression. For a gender studies program, the entries offer a rich and moving look inside the life of one woman who was struggling to get by in those grim economic times

This small book measures 6.25 inches by 3.75 inches and contains 122 pages. The cover and binding are intact although the binding has cracked on the inside front cover. The cover has some chipping and discolouration due to age. The diary is about 66% complete. The handwriting is legible. The diary also contains some rent receipts and rent receipt entries.