New York, NY, December 13, 2010—Charlotte Brontë (1816-1855)
relied on her diary to escape stifling work as a schoolteacher;
Tennessee Williams (1911-1983) confided his loneliness and self-
doubt; John Steinbeck (1902-1968) struggled to compose The
Grapes of Wrath, and Bob Dylan (b. 1941) sketched his way
through a concert tour. For centuries, people have turned to
private journals to document their days, sort out creative
problems, help them through crises, comfort them in solitude or
pain, or preserve their stories for the future. As more and more
diarists turn away from the traditional notebook and seek a
broader audience through web journals, blogs, and social media,
a new exhibition at The Morgan Library & Museum explores how and
why we document our everyday lives. Drawn from the Morgan's own
extraordinary holdings, The Diary: Three Centuries of Private
Lives is on view from January 21 through May 22, 2011. With over
seventy items on view, the exhibition raises questions about
this pervasive practice: wha