Scope and Contents From the Collection: The Iowa Byington Reed papers date from 1872 to 1936 and measure 2.25 linear feet. The papers consist of Iowa Reed's diaries, with daily entries covering her life from age twenty to just a few weeks before her death at age eighty-four. Also included is the diary of her brother Robert Byington, covering the last year and a half of his life, April 1893 to August 1894.Iowa Byington Reed's diaries are filled with information about housekeeping chores, entertainments, the rituals of birth, marriage and death, holiday practices, illnesses and the weather. Reed writes about family and friends, as well as local and national news. She writes of family birthdays and deaths, including the death of her brother Robert in 1884 at age thirty, and the death of her niece Edith at age seventeen in 1898. She writes about her lengthy courtship with Will Reed, the months of preparations before their wedding, their married life, and her inconsolable grief at his death. Reed also writes about...