Mrs. Taylor's collecting journals provide a wonderful link between the collector and her collection. As she would add a book to her collection, she would painstakingly record all the information she had about the volume into her journals, adding a carefully drawn hand-copy of the title page to the entry. These records, covering best-selling American fiction from 1787 to 1947, fill eighteen small journals. The depth and breadth of the collecting journals demonstrate both Mrs. Taylor's dedication to her collection and her love of literature. In a way, Mrs. Taylor's work of copying each title page demonstrates an early concern with the type of preservation being carried out on the collecting journals today—the need to preserve a representation of the physical object itself, not just its content.

To browse Mrs. Taylor's journals, visit the Taylor Family Digital Portfolio.