In this series of posts, Lauren Pidgeon, a Hanover High student from Norwich, explores the world of Mary Slack, a 15-year-old schoolgirl who kept a diary here in Norwich in 1865. NHS has just one year of her diary, but there is a story to be told. There are five posts in the slider below. Click on the titles to read Mary’s story.
Mary Slack’s World: The Diary of Mary Slack
Meet Lauren Pidgeon, a Hanover High student from Norwich who is interested in our community’s history. She is exploring the world of Mary Slack, a 15-year-old schoolgirl who kept a diary here in Norwich in [...]
Mary’s Sibling’s World
Mary writes about many family members in her diary. It became clear that not all of her siblings were living at home. The 1860 census shows that the Slacks were farmers and that there were [...]
Meg, Jo, Beth, Amy….and Mary
Have you read Little Women? Louisa May Alcott published it over the course of 1868 and 1869, just three years after Mary kept her diary! Little Women is a story about girls coming of age, [...]
Schoolgirl Romance
As a teenage girl in 1865, Mary's days at school were coming to an end. As I wrote in my last post, most girls Mary's age were heading to the mills, "working out" on nearby [...]
After the Diary
When we last left Mary, she was deeply upset over her father's punishment which forbid James and Mary from ever seeing each other again. Although Mary ended her diary after that last entry, I can [...]
