Mercy Jane Bancroft Blair, Diaries

Creator: Blair, Mercy Jane Bancroft

Quantity: 7 boxes (2.7 linear ft)

Language: English

Restrictions: None

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Preferred Citation: Mercy Jane Bancroft Blair, Diaries, (MS 0230). Archives & Special Collections, University of Nebraska–Lincoln Libraries.

Alternative Format: None

Mercy Jane Bancroft Blair, was born July 13, 1825 in Plymoth, New York. She had one brother and three sisters. Blair was a traveling dressmaker, she kept diaries in which she kept a record of her work and the people she met. She also wrote of her religious activities. She married Addison Blair, a widower with one son, on November 19, 1863. She and her husband moved to South Hill, Pennsylvania. The couple had no children. Blair's mother-in-law and father-in-law lived with them in their home in Pennsylvania. Blair died on June 18, 1900.

Scope and Content:

Mercy Jane Bancroft kept diaries from 1859 until 1900. The diaries detail many aspects of daily life and significantly, the creation of a quilt, now housed at the International Quilt Museum, University of Nebraska-Lincoln. The materials also include a Devotional and Practical Polyglot Family Bible published in 1870 by the National Publishing Company and Jones Brothers and Co. The bible contains information on marriages, births, and deaths within the Bancroft/Blair family. Sixteen unidentified photographs were included in the back of the bible. These photographs have been rehoused. Copies of the diaries were made on acid-free paper.

Subjects:

Blair, Mercy Jane Bancroft -- Diaries

Women dressmakers -- History -- 19th century

Women -- United States -- History -- 19th century -- Diaries

Home economics -- 19th century

Textile research -- 19th century

Quilting

Quilters

Quilting, United States