There's something enchanting about reading the unmediated words of people from the past, especially when those writings are unedited, brief, factual notations drawn from the writer’s daily life. Such snippets make up the contents of the “daybooks” and pocket diaries that have been kept by our fellow humans throughout history, and that enjoyed such popularity in 19th century America. Through these brief daily jottings, we are treated to an unmediated look at daily life long ago from the vantage point of a fly-on-the-wall, as people describe what they did, where they went, and who they saw – often, and notably, refraining from including "how they felt" and “what they thought" in the process.