The Anna Quincy Thaxter Cushing diary contains regular daily entries ranging from 7 March 1858 to 10 August 1861. It is volume 19 of a long sequence of personal diaries kept by Anna, extending back to 1844 and forward to at least 1884. Thirty-two of these volumes are now in the American Antiquarian Society (Anna Quincy Thaxter Cushing Papers, 1816-1923). Daily entries typically run from 50 to 300 words; the entire volume runs to more than 100,000 words. Cushing was an articulate and sympathetic commentater on her immediate world, and her diary is first and foremost a resume of personal experience. There is a great deal on child rearing and education; the maintenance of the home and relations with (Irish) servants; social life with friends and family in Dorchester, Hingham, and further afield; reading, singing, music, and other leisure activities; church life (Anna was extrememly active in the First Church (Unitarian) in Dorchester); and numerous charitable activities. Many members of First Church, under Rev. Nathaniel Hall, were sympathetic to abolition, and Anna was no exception. The latter parts of the diary contain occasional commentary on the dissolution of the Union and the early days of the Civl War.