Hugh Davis Farm Journals, UA Digital Collections

During class Monday, we had the pleasure of meeting the fine individuals who who manage and add to the UA Libraries Digital collections. Essentially what these people do is take many, many pictures of old artifacts, including portraits, old UA yearbooks, and in this case, farm journals from 1849, and scan them into an online database for research purposes.

Hugh Davis kept journals of his exploits on the form to keep a record for future reference. Below is an image scan of one of the pages from his 1849-1854 journal.

You may not be able to read the writing, but this entry is a "Sick List" showing when members of the Davis family got sick, what they had and how many days of work they missed. It seems the measles were rampant at the time.

The director of the Digital Collections said these journals would serve as a good look into  the weather patterns of the South when scientists studying Global Warming need to research a date preceding the forming of the National Weather Service. Interesting stuff.