close Types of Diary Entries: Long entries

Long entries for single days are featured in the main diary volumes kept by John Quincy Adams. Some diary pages contain more than one long entry, but some long entries span several pages. For example: diary 31, page 324, entry for 1 May 1820.

Short entries

Short entries are found in some almanac volumes, and other volumes, including the volume that John Quincy Adams called, "Diary in Abridgement" (diary volume 33). The short entries within the almanacs are on manuscript pages interleaved within each published volume. A typical manuscript page contains between twelve and fifteen short entries. The short entries in the "Diary in Abridgement" have been referred to as "abbreviated entries" by some scholars and editors. For example: diary 18, page 6, entry for 11 January 1792, or diary 33 page 2, entry for 6 December 1821.

Line-a-day

Line-a-day entries are single lines summarizing one day, and one page with these entries covers a whole month. John Quincy Adams assembled an entire volume of line-a-day entries, that he called, "Epitome" (diary volume 23). John Quincy Adams also wrote line-a-day entries in some almanac volumes and in one section of one of the main diary volumes. For example: diary 23, page 300, entry for 1 June 1816.

Summary

Summary entries appear in the main diary volumes following the last entry for each month. Many of these entries have the heading, "Day," and a few of these entries that appear at the end of December have the heading, "Year" and summarize the year. For example: diary 28, page 307, entry for "Day" (about October 1811) and diary 39, page 215, entry for "Year" (about 1833).

Draft entries

Draft entries are mainly contained in volumes that John Quincy Adams called, "Rubbish." Many of these entries were re-written and polished as long entries. For example: diary 50, page 20, entry for 4 January 1827.

Lists

Lists of readings, visitors, Congressmen, and various observations appear in some of the almanac volumes and in the "Rubbish" volumes. For example: diary 49, page 23, entry for 30 December 1819.

Memoranda

Notes, memoranda, dated financial accounts, and various quotations appear in many of the diary volumes. Some of these entries are dated and some are undated. For example: diary 48, page 112 (undated notes) and diary 27, page 423 (entry dated 29 April 1829 comprised of a quotation).

Placeholders

Some diaries have placeholders--spaces for entries of a particular date. These are usually datelines without additional entry text, and, in general, the placeholder entries are not indexed within the date search tool. For example: diary 23, page 200, entry for 1 February 1808.