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[Identification of item], Charles Baker Journals, David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Duke University.
The Charles Baker Journals were received by the David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library as a purchase in 1985.
Processed by Rubenstein Library Staff
Encoded by Meghan Lyon, April 2011
Descriptive sources and standards used to create this inventory:
This finding aid is NCEAD compliant.
English businessman and schoolmaster.
Manuscript journal written in 25 annual vols. of Lett's Diary. In the early volumes, Baker lived in Bayswater, England, and was a partner in a firm in the Colonial Commission trade. He wrote of attending plays, concerts, and sporting events. He spent much of his time working among boys and young men at the West London Youths Institute. Although married with children, he wrote of his great affection for boys, and sometimes mentioned taking them home and sleeping with them. He described marital discord caused by his wife's "cold" treatment of particular boys. In 1875, his wife left him.
Entries also document his financial difficulties, which necessitated his borrowing large sums of money and which culminated in bankruptcy in 1875. He attempted to open a school in 1877, but had few students due to "terrible scandals," which he attributed to his wife. By 1875, he had been ordained into the Church of England, and the later volumes describe his life as a curate in various parishes. In 1902, he signed on as chaplain on the
Each volume has been individually boxed and barcoded. The volume from 1870 required preservation care and has been split into 6 pamphlet binders, each with its own barcode. Part 7 of 1870 holds the printed pages and bindings of the volume.
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