Recollections and retrospective accounts risk the selectiveness and reliability of memory. One of the challenges for any reader of these types of writings is to identify the creator revealed or hidden in the story that self has presented. A retrospective narrative based on revision of a contemporary daily journal serves as an interesting hybrid, and several such journals are presented in this exhibition. Charles Gray, a sailor from Boston who spent three years in China between 1863-1866, kept a diary when he was overseas, which he used as the basis of a longer narrative he hoped to publish. There is enough boring detail of routine soldierly duties to support the reality of his experiences, but the overall dramatic scale of heroes and villains, escapes and dangerous encounters, certainly suggests memory embellished, and very likely was influenced by the popularity of Wild West shows.
Place is another defining factor of any self work.
The comfort of home, in particular, gives moment to the daily routine and the ordinary. Massachusetts resident Dudley Swift's diary of farm chores, kept between 1784-1844, represents the record of one man watching the seasons change around him. His life is centered in his work. Unless disturbed by significant situations like war or romance, habitual diarists quietly chronicle the rich details of ordinary life. Travel, on the other hand, inspires consciousness of what is new and different.