Young Love: Martha Farnsworth Diary

Martha Farnsworth was a prolific diary writer, recording her daily experiences from 1882 through 1922 with only minor gaps. This podcast features entries from Martha's diary that describe her courtship and first marriage to John W. Shaw, a post man in Topeka, Kansas. In these entries, Martha is in her early twenties and describes her involvement with several boyfriends, including breaking off an engagement with one of them. She is very candid about her feelings and many of her diary entries are very emotional. At this point in time, it is difficult to determine if these accounts are her actual feelings, the highs and lows of young women, or if she is being flirtatious and melodramatic, which might have been part of the expected standards of courtship and marriage in the late Victorian era.