For a long time I simply tried to find out whatever I could about their lives and to trace the references to individuals and events Douglass, a copper magnate and Upper Peninsula developer. It to Lydia Reed Smith Douglass, the wife of Columbus C. In the same way I searched rather haphazardly for some background information on the author of the journal. I worked on the transcription rather casually, when I got around to it, rather than systematically and doggedly. With an accurate transcription of the journal-an exact reading in typed form.

So initially my task was simply to come up When I compared it to the original autograph manuscript, I realized that it was not accurate-it gave misreadings of some words, left others out, and occasionally inserted errors of typing or spelling. I discovered that the library already had one typed transcript of the journal but, But, thinking it might be worthwhile to offerĪ summer class in editing diaries and journals, I came back to the library when the exhibit ended in order to read the entire journal and transcribe it myself. To be honest, at first I was more interested in Isle Royale than in the woman and not at all interested in the history of the Michigan copper mining industry. More than ten years ago I visited an exhibit of journals and diaries owned by the Clarke Historical Library and became especially intrigued by a journal kept by a young woman who had lived atĪ copper mine on Isle Royale in 1848. I should explain how I came to prepare this guide.

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