Introduction to the Digital Scholarly Edition of the Diaries of Jonathan Pearson

By Mandy Blakeman

I don't know what good all this folderal which I write is going to do me at last—perhaps amuse, perhaps improve. Yes, I know ‘twill if proper attention is paid. If I cannot write for others to read, perhaps these few scribblings will some day remind me of some “by-gone” days and adventures which otherwise I should have forgotten, or will show what I have been doing or where I have been. If so I shall be repaid for my trouble.

—Jonathan Pearson

Jonathan Pearson made the unusual commitment to document his life in a series of diaries, beginning at age 15 in 1828 and ending in 1874 as a 61 year old man, established as a valued figure at Union College. He used his diaries to record a wealth of information, both about himself and about the time in which he lived—he details his personal thoughts on religion and spirituality, for instance, as well as particulars on the election of 1828, education, the people and layouts of the various towns he lived in, and old Union and Schenectady. Pearson had an unexpected amount of foresight for a teenager. His purpose for writing the diary, however, is unclear, as he chooses to omit that detail. One view is that he wrote this diary to complement his education and status; only the educated elite of the time had the resources—paper and pen, literacy—to write in a diary. Pearson then used the diary to develop his thoughts and feelings on the page, testing out different writing styles and having plenty of space to make mistakes. His diary does indeed contain numerous spelling and grammatical errors or inconsistencies, a curious mix of original poems, hymns, and extracts from newspapers, and many deeply personal musings on topics such as the nature of God and sin that would be evidence for this theory.

Perhaps Pearson had no particular reason for beginning his diary; he simply wanted a space to express himself privately, to think out all that he was musing about and feeling as he went through a life rife with change. He did not consider style or grammar while writing, instead focusing on getting thoughts out onto the page, even if it was just a summary of the weather and business of the day, or a quote from that day’s newspaper. His diary became a special place to him, something deeply personal and valued enough that he kept up with it for life. Anything that was on his mind made it onto those pages, even his most prejudiced thoughts.

These two conflicting views of Pearson and his diary proved challenging in editing and writing content surrounding Pearson’s words, for it is unclear whether he ever intended for others to read them; he does not come to a concrete conclusion (above). While it is in vogue to publish the private diaries and papers of historical figures, such as Virginia Woolf or Ralph Waldo Emerson, they are long dead, and therefore unable to give permission for the world to see such a personal perspective on them. It poses an ethical issue for any scholars working on a project such as this.

While there can never be a definite answer to this question, we tackled the project in the hopes that Pearson, regardless of his original intentions, would understand the merits of Summer IDEaS as a scholar himself. During his time at the college, Pearson took an in-depth look at the Dutch origins of Schenectady, often reading personal letters and papers to glean information; his diaries could be seen in a similar light—a valuable academic resource. While Pearson might be surprised to find that his “folderal” is now of great importance, we’d like to think that he’d also be flattered that his commitment to diary writing means something, and that it can now reach a wider audience with the help of digital scholarship.