WELCOME TO SALLY’S DIARIES:

Before I get started describing this piece, I want to let you know that I have a podcast. I’ve taken some diaries from my private collection and shared them on our podcast called “Diary Discoveries.” We’ve got 48 episodes out now and you can find it on all the usual podcast venues. So if you enjoy the compelling and adventurous stories from vintage diaries then please check it out.

Plus, I was asked to do a TEDx talk in Vienna about this very thing, collecting diaries, and if you are interested in this sort of thing just put into the search engines “10,000 diaries” and you should come up with it. It was a privileged and blessing to be able to share what I’ve learned in the last 36 years. And with all that said……

Up for auction today is a very rare copy of the full diary written by Dr. Leo M. Davidoff who in 1925 went on MacMillan’s Arctic Exploration and kept detailed records of the event. This manuscript contains 133 pages, counting front and back of each pages. The person I bought this from said it came straight from an estate sale back east in either Maine or New Hampshire.

When I was researching this on the web I found a very interesting article written only a few months ago in the Valley News, titled, “A Yankee Notebook: A teacher and a great read about the Arctic.” The article is about a man going with a friend of his (Bea) to visit her friends, Irv and Civia, in Maine, a few miles down the coast not far from New Brunswick. I want to quote from a portion of that article as it pertains to what I have up for auction….

“Sitting on the deck at the second visit, Bea and Irv, who’ve been colleagues forever, fell into shop talk and I into reverie. Then Civia happened to mention she’d heard I was interested in the Arctic. When I allowed that was true, she disappeared into the house and returned bearing a book……. The book bore no title except one glued in its spine: Davidoff “Trip to North” 1925. Opening it, I was surprised to see it in typescript, with occasional black-and-white photographs pasted in, and the whole photocopied. This was the transcript of the journal kept by the expedition doctor, young Leo Davidoff, on the so-called 1925 MacMillan-Byrd Expedition to Northern Greenland. It was then typed as 132 pages and proofed by hand with a fountain pen. To me it was the Mother Lode…..”

The web article goes on, but it helped me to give a bit of background as to what I might have here.

Then in a 2012 article on the web titled, “Leo Max Davidoff: his formative years and participation in the MacMillan Arctic Expedition,” it says this about Davidoff’s original diary…..

“The original diary is in the Donald Baxter MacMillan Collection in the Bowdoin archives; a typescript, donated by Dr. Davidoff’s widow Ida, is located in the National Library of Medicine.”

So at some time, someone copied the original transcript that Davidoff’s widow had given to the National Library of Medicine. I cannot say when this was copied, but the person I bought this from said that it’s extremely rare and only a few libraries (really if any) have a copy of it.

Here’s the reason I’m leaning towards this being one of the original typescript copies mentioned above. You can tell on the first page where the paper clip was as there is a rust mark as if the paper clip had been there a long time. Plus on the front page, written in pencil, it says, “missing 5 & 6, 71 & 72.” Those four pages are not missing but have been replaced with different paper; meaning, the other pages are yellowed with age, as if copied years ago. Pages 5,6,71 and 72 have whiter pages. And when you see my scans above, they don’t show the original color of the pager which has yellowed with age.

So, this might be a very rare copy indeed, as I could find no others on line. I copied as many pages I could to give you and idea of the contents and the layout. Then here’s a little information taken from the article I mentioned above telling a little bit about the expedition and how Dr. Davidoff got involved. I scanned the two pages of this article and marked them with an “X” so as not to get them confused with the diary pages I’ve scanned…..

“1925 MacMillan Arctic Expedition: At a dinner in March 1923, Lieutenant Commander Donald Baxter MacMillan (1874-1970) met Lieutenant Commander Eugene Francis McDonald Jr. .(1886-1958). Donald, president of Zenith Radio Corporation, educated MacMillan about “FM/short wave” radio developed by his company. (FM or shortwave radio was able to penetrate the auroral zone.) MacMillan and McDonald also discussed exploring the Arctic and fixed-wing aircraft rather than dirigibles and with shortwave radio. They presented their ideas at several meeting with Curtis D. Wilber, the secretary of the US Navy, beginning in January 1925. He finally agreed to the proposal and called for naval personnel to volunteer for the expedition and join the naval Arctic unit. Lieutenant Commander Richard Evelyn Byrd Jr. (1888-1957) was appointed the commander of the volunteer unit. Secretary Wilbur named the expedition the “1925 MacMillan Arctic Expedition,” and the National Geographic Society was declared the sponsor. Wilbur also negotiated with the Secretary of War for 3 newly designed fixed-wing aircraft called Loening Amphibians because they were designed by Grover Cleveland Loening (1888-1976) to land on and take off from ice, land and water. MacMillan purchased a steel-hull coal-burning ship, which was prepared for the expedition at the Brooklyn Navy Yard. On May 19, 1925, it was christened SS Peary by Admiral Peary’s daughter, Marie Peary Stafford.

On June 17, the Peary, with Dr. Davidoff aboard as the surgeon, departed from Boston and headed to Wiscasset, Maine, to join the Bowdoin. Both ships sailed from Wiscasset, on June 20. Dr. Davidoff maintained a daily diary, with detailed information about the expedition beginning with the departure from Boston.”

That gives you a little information on how Dr. Davidoff got involved.

Hope this give you a better idea of this manuscript. It measures about 8 1/2” x 11” and again has 133 pages. And wait to pay if you are international because I will do a more exact shipping cost and it might be cheaper.