Answer: Emilie Davis

Little is known about Emilie Davis. She was born on February 18 in an unknown year and was most likely in her late teens or early twenties when she began her diary in 1863. She seems to have lived alone but occasionally stayed with the family for whom she was working. She was educated, enjoyed reading, and also attended night school. She enjoyed spending time with her friends, attended church regularly, and occasionally went to lectures and concerts. Davis enjoyed music and singing, and eventually learned to play the guitar.

Emilie Davis’s diaries cover the years 1863 to 1865. Daily entries provide a glimpse of the life of a young woman in Philadelphia. Friends and family are mentioned often, and there are many references to a friend named Nellie. She also wrote about attending weddings, funerals, lectures, church fairs, reading, sewing, her first use of a sewing machine, shopping with friends, school, guitar lessons, seeing parades during the war, and concerns for sick friends and family members. Early in 1863, she wrote about taking care of her sick father, who subsequently moved to Harrisburg. Her subsequent trips to Harrisburg are mentioned throughout the diaries.

The Emilie Davis diaries (Collection 3030) are available for research at HSP. They can also be found fully digitized in HSP’s Digital Library, digitized and transcribed on the website, Memorable Days: The Emilie Davis Diaries (davisdiaries.villanova.edu), and transcribed in print in two works: Emilie Davis's Civil War: The Diaries of a Free Black Woman in Philadelphia, 1863-1865 (call number F 158.44 .D38 2014) and Notes from a Colored Girl: The Civil War Pocket Diaries of Emilie Frances Davis (call number F 158.44 .W55 2014).

Ann Gordon’s essay, Getting History’s Words Right: Diaries of Emilie Davis, which appeared in the April 2015 issue of The Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography, has been awarded the Boydston Essay Prize by the Association for Documentary Editing.