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Diary of J.P. D'Ooge from 1886 March to 1887 October

The diary of Jennie Pease D’Ooge dated from March 1886 to October 1887 begins on D'Ooge's 29th birthday, eight months after her marriage to Benjamin L. D'Ooge. It documents Jennie's pregnancy with her first child, Ida Joanna D'Ooge, birth in February 1887, and early months of motherhood; Benjamin's appointment to the chair of Greek and Latin at the Michigan State Normal School in Ypsilanti, following the resignation of Joseph P. Vroman; the couple's summer visit to Grand Rapids and Macatawa Park; and their move from Ann Arbor to Ypsilanti. Jennie and Benjamin rent a house in Ypsilanti, attend the First Congregational Church of Ypsilanti, and get involved with the local community, while maintaining ties with Ann Arbor and University of Michigan society. Jennie chronicles her daily household, social, and recreation activities; her involvement with the University Musical Society Choral Union, Congregational and Presbyterian churches, a missionary society, and other local organizations; and the lives of a wide circle of family and friends. She reads extensively; studies German, French, and Latin; takes sketching and watercolor lessons; plays tennis; and regularly attends lectures and theatrical and musical performances. She also comments on world events, including labor strikes, debates over Irish home rule, and the construction of the Panama Canal. The telegraph, the telephone, steamships, and the railroad enable members of the Pease and D'Ooge families to communicate and to travel across Michigan and the United States and overseas. For more local travel, Jennie and Benjamin walk on foot, take streetcars and interurbans, and ride in horse-drawn phaetons, barouches, and other carriages, either rented from a livery or borrowed from a friend. The diary includes drawings, newspaper clippings, and other ephemera.