ABSTRACT
On 23 March 1831, while a student at Ontario Female Seminary, Frances C. Smith began keeping a “private diary.” In it she recorded her social encounters and correspondence, the state of her health and mind, and the progress of her studies. At the time she began the diary, Ms. Smith was preparing for spring examinations at the academy. Expressing some anxiety over this upcoming performance, she complained when her studies were interrupted by an unwanted visitor, as well as when a teacher scolded her for “not reciting all the if's & and's in my lesson.” On Friday, 25 March, however, she also recorded that she had “recited in intellectual philosophy four chapters to my own and my teacher's satisfaction." 1
