Visions of America: The Stephen White Collection

Two manuscript diaries, both approx. 8 x 12 1/2 in., string bound, and with paper wraps. The first diary, 80pp, 1 January - 24 December 1855, identified in ink on cover "N.S. Raymond / Lynn Essex Co. / Mass. January 1st 1855." The second diary, 88pp, 1 January - 31 December 1859, identified in ink on cover "Raymond / 1859" and in faint pencil "N.S. Raymond." Diaries each contain daily entries and detailed accounts of Nathaniel Raymond's work as a machinist in the Lynn, Massachusetts, and Greater Boston areas.

Though both diaries record some amount of leisure and family activity, the overwhelming majority of manuscript entries relate to the daily labor, travel, expenses, and business negotiations undertaken each day by Nathaniel Raymond. Raymond works primarily in Lynn, but travels throughout Essex County and surrounding areas including Boston, Saugus, Swampscott, Chelsea, and Roxbury. Both diaries are similar in style and substance. Typical descriptions may describe the procurement of supplies for a job, prices paid for materials, the workmen at each site, money earned, the amount of time spent each day on a specific job, the names of local businessman and companies for which work was undertaken, and the type of labor performed. Richmond and his fellow workmen utilize, install, and/or repair a wide array of equipment including boilers, lathes, pulleys, pipes, pumps, engines, and more. Employers utilizing his services range from manufacturers to individuals. Raymond describes a wide variety of projects such as forging a grate for a hotel, working on a fence, installing boilers, fitting pipes, and servicing an array of equipment such as a printing press, a type cutter, a "rolling machine," a "bolt machine," and "Chesley's chopping machine." Among the named tradesmen identified in the diaries are two of Raymond's sons, Edwin F. Raymond (1837-1861) and Albert W. Raymond (1840-1872).

Typical entries include: "Thursday Jan 25 [1855] / All this day I was at work on the hangars for the force pump & blower & putting them up in the basement. John was on small ratchets till most night, then went up to Saugus with F. Fisk to put some gears on a tobacco machine. Edwin cleaned up a gear for Prinker [sp?], & put in 2 steel sete screws, & than put a R.M. frame on a bench & painted it. Lewis was at work on the furnace doors & bonnet, all day, had Little to help him. Little also made some tools, & keys. I recd 75 fire bricks from Boston cost 3.75 besides freight." -- "Thursday Oct 4 [1855] / I worked to day on Alleys & Lampers Mill, but as part of my work was turning a shaft to use up the gear that E.[dwin] bored too big.... E.[dwin] turned the lower step, drilled the step box, & 2 racks, & than worked for Stephens on his axles till night. Norris was here with Mr. Hadley, working on their blind machine, the 2 days past...." -- "Wednesday 15th & Thursday the 16th [June 1859] / I staid in Lowell going around most of the time with Dr. R Call to see if we could prevail upon the owners of steam mills to put in Chases Smoke Condenser. I had tolerable good luck, than I came down down [sic] to Boston at 1/4 past 3 & got to Lynn at 6 o'clock."

Nathaniel Skerry Raymond (ca 1810 -1860) is identified in the 1850 U.S. Federal Census as a "Machinist" residing in Lynn, Massachusetts. Of his five children, his two sons Edwin and Albert were actively working with him, presumably learning the skilled trades under their father's tutelage. Machinists built and maintained large industrial machinery that was becoming increasingly prevalent in the northern United States due to the rapid expansion of large manufacturing sites, building construction, and commercialism. Lynn, Massachusetts, was home to a wide array of industry, and in 1860 witnessed one of the largest strikes of the early labor movement. Skilled machinists such as Raymond would no doubt have been in high demand during this period of growth, a fact evidenced clearly in Raymond's two diaries.

An illustrative and scarce record of the early industrial period with tremendous potential for scholarly research.