In a small room up a flight of stairs in a bank building in Cleveland’s Kamm’s Corners neighborhood, you’ll find the offices of the American Diary Project.
In late November, the nonprofit hosted its regular “junk journal” class. Four attendees sat at a large desk with scissors and tape, creating collages out of stickers, paper, vintage photos and magazines. The end products are meant to evoke participants’ memories and interests.
Kelli Ann Conetsco of Medina was one of the attendees. She used journaling to document her daughter’s childhood and catalog the progress of her rosebushes.
"I use it for therapy, I use it to keep record of my life," said Conetsco. "It’s important to have some kind of tactical or something that you can actually touch, pick up, hold, look at, flip through."
Donations from the monthly events help raise funds for the nonprofit’s main reason for being — preserving and digitizing historic and contemporary diaries from around the U.S.
A growing collection
Kate Zirkle is the founder and director of the American Diary Project.
"(I've been writing) since I was a little kid writing in diaries," said Zirkle. "And I was wondering what would happen to them when I passed away. And so that got me searching on the internet where are there archives or somewhere that I could donate my diaries and I really wasn't finding anything."
Zirkle started out with just a website and a personal collection seeded by her own funds. She later bought diaries from eBay in 2022. The collection has now grown into many shelves of preserved diaries and journals of all shapes and sizes.
"We have over 500 diaries," said Zirkle. "We have a handful from the 1800s, the majority of our collection is from the 1900s, and some from the 2000s as well."
Not bad luck
Zirkle placed a box of preserved diaries down on the table and picked up a small white volume with a locking clasp.
"So this is one of my favorite diaries," said Zirkle. "It's from the late 1960s from Kim. And there's a warning in it that says ‘Warning, bad luck, do not open.’ It's just it's so cute."
About 90 volunteers across the country help with transcribing and digitization. Most of the diaries have been donated by private individuals from all time periods, from a firsthand account of life on an Ohio farm in the 1850’s to that of Frank Diorio, an out gay man who lived in the Castro District of San Francisco in the 1970’s.
Here’s an excerpt from his diary, about a new partner named Felix:
Felix and I talked this morning about falling in love at breakfast, tortillas and scrambled eggs. And it occurred to me that not only have I not felt that sensation in a long, long time but that I hope I never feel it again in the way that I've always known it.
A digital version is on the American Diary Project’s website, along with dozens of others from all 50 states. The wishes of those who donate diaries are honored, with many diaries being kept unpublished until after their death.
Preserving for the future
Zirkle said it’s important to preserve diaries for future generations.
"You could read about history in textbooks and it's subjective based on the person who wrote the textbook, right?" said Zirkle. "But if you really want to get at the heart of someone's individual experience of what they went through, you're gonna find that in their diary."
Back at the junk journal class, Kellie Ann Conetsco agreed.
"Most of the time it's always autobiography about important people," said Conetsco. "But you know, being an average Jane in an average town is important too because we are the backbone of America."
Folks can view the diaries themselves by making an appointment with the group. They’re also looking to add online diary events later this year — to keep the tradition alive for future generations well beyond Northeast Ohio.
