Pauline Escher's Diary
Pauline Escher'sdiary entry on November 11, 1857 —Dad's name day
Pauline Escher was born into a Zurich family in 1829. She lived the ordinary life of a middle-class, unmarried woman—and documented it in her journals. Excerpts from her diaries allow us to glimpse the life of a woman 200 years ago—in a way that is more intimate and vivid than almost any other source can provide.
Of the five surviving diaries, the first—Diary No. 7, which was kept from November 1857 to August 1859—has been fully transcribed. I have selected, annotated, and illustrated a number of entries. Pauline describes her daily life, her joys and sorrows, and we learn a great deal about Zurich society at that time.
You can access the diaries through selected highlights, keywords, or the titles of the blog posts.