Doris Holmes Blake Diary

From childhood, Doris Holmes Blake (1892-1978) was a prolific diarist and letter writer. This diary, written when Doris Holmes was 21 years old, details her life and activities while a student at Boston University's College of Liberal Arts, where she studied business and the classics, earning her A.B. in 1913. Some entries employ "mirror writing," backwards writing that must be read with the aid of a mirror.

Blake started working for the United States National Museum in 1928 as a coleopterist, specializing in Chrysomelidae (leaf beetles). Her husband, Sidney Blake, worked for the USDA as a botanist. In 1933, Doris Blake’s official employment with the Smithsonian came to an end with the passage of the Economy Act of 1932, which stipulated that no two members of the same family could be employed by the federal government. Doris returned to the Smithsonian a few years later as a collaborator, continuing her work, but without pay, until her death in 1978. 

Discover more about the Doris Holmes Blake Papers.