Browse Items (882 total)

The Worcester/Boston Trip consists of original diary entries (eventually copied by the Nelson brothers into Sketches of Our Home Life, Vol. 2) that provide a detailed account of a trip to Worcester and Boston by one of the brothers. The diary entries include details about the boys’ train rides, meeting at the First Baptist Salem Sq., a trip to a YMCA to see their first basketball game, as well as trips to the County Jail and Art Museum with Aunt Sadie.

Elmer's Hunting Diary includes stories about his hunting excursion with Uncle Oren, Arthur, Walter, and his father on Nov. 18th-19th. The account details the boys' successful hunting of hedgehogs, their construction of a campsite, and preperation of meals.

The Five Years in the White Mountains volumes are very much books about New Hampshire life, though crafted as wilderness adventure tales. Volume I is written in the first person, and full of local detail about "Beachnutting and Blueberrying" as well as hunting, hiking, building shelters, etc. It is in a way a Robinson Crusoe story not on an island but at home.

Jim's Cruise is a short story about a fourteen year old boy who boards a ship and embarks on an adventure that takes many unexpected turns.

A Partridge is a very short story, written by Elmer Nelson, that describes a dead partridge that was brought into the Nelson family home by their cat.

Sketches of Our Home Life, Vol 1 is a detailed account about notable aspects of the Nelson family’s life written by Hial, Ida, Elmer, Arthur, and Walter. This volume includes an opening journal entry by Ida, poetry by Hial, including “The Joys of the Farmers Boy,” “Our Early Play Times” by Walter, “Our Cameras” by Elmer, hunting and camping entries from Arthur and Elmer, as well as other notable happenings of the family’s everyday lives.