Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff You Missed in History Class, a production
Speaker 1: of iHeartRadio. Hello and welcome to the podcast. I'm Holly
Speaker 1: Frye and I'm Tracy V. Wilson. Happy New Year. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's twenty twenty four as we record this, where as
Speaker 1: we share this, we're recording in twenty twenty three, to
Speaker 1: be honest, but this is a time of year it's
Speaker 1: come up for us before where we start to talk
Speaker 1: about things like calendars and planners, which are my personal love.
Speaker 1: Put me in a planner store and I'm very happy.
Speaker 1: And we have talked a little bit about these topics before.
Speaker 1: We talked about almanacs a little bit on our episode
Speaker 1: on Benjamin Banneker, and we have certainly talked about calendars
Speaker 1: before a few times, but one you may remember is
Speaker 1: our episode about the French Republican calendar. But I really
Speaker 1: found myself wondering specifically about day planners recently because I
Speaker 1: was setting up my twenty twenty four to one and
Speaker 1: I was getting excited. It has droids on it. We
Speaker 1: love it because I still love a physical paper planner.
Speaker 1: I know not everyone does, and some people have transitioned
Speaker 1: over to digital. But I started to wonder about when
Speaker 1: people started using actual planners, and that really means that
Speaker 1: we have to talk about almanacs because the two are
Speaker 1: kind of tightly linked in how one led to the other.
Speaker 1: And so here we are today. If you're making your planner,
Speaker 1: I hope this is a good listening material for you
Speaker 1: to review the basics and almanac normally contains things like
Speaker 1: a calendar, times for the sunrise and sunset, astronomical information, tides, climate, holidays, festivals,
Speaker 1: that kind of thing. You can make a comparison of
Speaker 1: an almanac being kind of like an analog version of
Speaker 1: a smartphone for people living in pre digital times. Of course,
Speaker 1: there are still almanacs a day, including some that have
Speaker 1: their own web pages, which is a little funny to me.
Speaker 1: So everything you might need to know in terms of time, weather, winter, plants,
Speaker 1: that was all in the almanac, so folks had a
Speaker 1: ready reference to stay informed on those kinds of things.
Speaker 1: So the roots of almanacs are found in calendars that
Speaker 1: had notations correlated to dates those date back all the
Speaker 1: way to ancient Egypt. These calendars were tied very closely
Speaker 1: to the activity of the Nile River, as it was
Speaker 1: the cornerstone of survival, so the phases of flood, spring,
Speaker 1: and low water, which was also the harvest period were
Speaker 1: all noted alongside marking the days. In Egyptians of the
Speaker 1: time understood the lunar cycle, and they had marked the
Speaker 1: idea of twelve cycles in a year, but the three
Speaker 1: seasons of the Nile may have really been the more
Speaker 1: important markers to their calendar. This is actually a matter
Speaker 1: of debate among historians. But the period of flood ran
Speaker 1: from fall to midwinter. Spring, which was also called emergence
Speaker 1: sometimes when you see people talking about it today, was
Speaker 1: from midwinter so like January, to late spring around May,
Speaker 1: and then what they called their harvest encompassed summer and
Speaker 1: into the autumn. But these weren't fixed dates, because the
Speaker 1: movements of the Nile could shift year to year, and
Speaker 1: predictions of those shifts would be baked into the calendar,
Speaker 1: although that meant that there was a little bit of variability.
Speaker 1: On average, the year ended up following three hundred and
Speaker 1: sixty five days as we recognize it today, but there
Speaker 1: were some that were a little longer and a little shorter.
Speaker 1: We don't know exactly when this way of tracking the
Speaker 1: year began, but there are rudimentary versions going back to
Speaker 1: three thousand BCE. Ancient Greek and Roman calendars also incorporated
Speaker 1: culturally important information along with the days and the years,
Speaker 1: things like feasts, days that were likely to bring good
Speaker 1: fortune or bad. While we don't have surviving examples of
Speaker 1: Greek almanacs, they were mentioned specifically by the mathematical commentator
Speaker 1: Theon of Alexandria, who lived in the fourth century. He
Speaker 1: incidentally was the father of Hypatia. Yeah, I feel like
Speaker 1: in doing an episode about calendars and almanacs, we bump
Speaker 1: up against so many of our Yeah, it's a two
Speaker 1: other things we've talked about. Yeah. So, then the fasti,
Speaker 1: which means days, was sort of a Roman list version
Speaker 1: of an almanac. Fastidias, for example, translates to lawful days,
Speaker 1: and that list indicated what days it was legal to
Speaker 1: conduct various kinds of business. Fasti sacri were lists of
Speaker 1: sacred days, and Roman religious leaders were responsible for mapping
Speaker 1: out the various important times of the years, including religious
Speaker 1: festivals and observations. Then, according to the eighteen ninety Dictionary
Speaker 1: of Greek and Roman Antiquities, at some point a scribe
Speaker 1: is said to have completely broken with tradition and published
Speaker 1: the calendar used by the priests of Rome for the
Speaker 1: public to see. Sometimes this is described as displaying tablets.
Speaker 1: It's very dramatic. And then it was kind of like
Speaker 1: time had become democratized in that moment, and this catalyzed
Speaker 1: the development of a common calendar that included a more
Speaker 1: comprehensive collection of information. The Chinese tung Shing is an
Speaker 1: almanac full of dates that are auspicious for various activities
Speaker 1: and occasions. The lore around its origins attributes the creation
Speaker 1: of the first one to the mythical Yellow Emperor around
Speaker 1: twenty six hundred BCE. This is a version of an
Speaker 1: almanac that has endured to present day, although the format
Speaker 1: of it has evolved a number of times. Yeah, my
Speaker 1: understanding is that people will still sometimes consult it to
Speaker 1: pick out things like wedding days or other important days
Speaker 1: for their family. The compilation, though, of these various types
Speaker 1: of information, so combining astronomy, climate, holidays, etc. Into one
Speaker 1: source for personal use, is credited to the Arabic speaking world.
Speaker 1: The word almanac means climate in Arabic, and according to
Speaker 1: the Oxford English Dictionary, the word almanac originates as a
Speaker 1: Spanish Arabic word in the Middle Ages, although its specific
Speaker 1: point of origin is unknown. This is all a little
Speaker 1: bit disputed, though, because it may have been a misinterpretation
Speaker 1: or a borrow word that was adopted into European use.
Speaker 1: It appears in medieval Latin as almanac with a K,
Speaker 1: and it wasn't used in the sense we know it
Speaker 1: today definitively until the thirteenth century. That mention is from
Speaker 1: twelve seventy six, when English philosopher Roger Bacon published his
Speaker 1: book Opus Majus. That year, he suggested that the word
Speaker 1: be adopted for use when referring to tables of astronomical information.
Speaker 1: One of the reasons there's some fuzziness here is because
Speaker 1: the first almanac is usually credited to a man named
Speaker 1: Abuashak Ibrahim ibn Yaya al Nakash al to Gb al Zarkali,
Speaker 1: who lived and worked on the Iberian Peninsula in the
Speaker 1: Muslim ruled region known as al Andalous, so broadly within
Speaker 1: Spain today. Al Zarkali was born in ten twenty nine
Speaker 1: during the Islamic Golden Age, which just came up in
Speaker 1: our episode on the Banu Musa. Al Zarkali was an
Speaker 1: astronomer and an astrologer, and in ten eighty eight he
Speaker 1: wrote what's now called the Almanac of Zarkali. It's believed
Speaker 1: to have been based on a Greek work, but the
Speaker 1: information in it regarding astronomical information as local to Toledo,
Speaker 1: where al Zarkali lived and worked. The first mass printed
Speaker 1: European almanac was the work of Johannes Mueller von Koenigsberg,
Speaker 1: better known as Reggiomontans. He was born on June sixth,
Speaker 1: fourteen thirty six in Koenigsburg, Germany. Became a well known
Speaker 1: and respected mathematician and astronomer, and he was eventually employed
Speaker 1: by the Vatican. He also became a printer and he
Speaker 1: produced his all E Femeritus Abbano starting in fourteen seventy four.
Speaker 1: Although Reggio Montanas died two years later, his almanac continued
Speaker 1: until fifteen oh six, twenty three years after the first
Speaker 1: of the Reggio Montanas almanacs, France's first almanac was produced.
Speaker 1: That was the fourteen ninety three Calendar of Shepherds. This
Speaker 1: book became very popular and was soon picked up for
Speaker 1: publication in Geneva as well, and then it was translated
Speaker 1: badly by all accounts, into Scott's Dialect for publication in
Speaker 1: England in fifteen oh three that remained in print in
Speaker 1: England continuously until sixteen thirty one. This particular almanac had
Speaker 1: the types of things that we mentioned already astronomical tables, seasons,
Speaker 1: planting and feast days, plus medical information, poetry and biblical contents.
Speaker 1: One of the versions of the Calendar of Shepherds that
Speaker 1: was published in England was produced by Richard Pinson. Pinson
Speaker 1: was born in France in Normandy, and after he moved
Speaker 1: to London, he became one of the city's most prominent printers,
Speaker 1: and in his fifteen oh six version of the Calendar
Speaker 1: of Shepherds, Pinson wrote that it had been translated into
Speaker 1: quote corrupt English and not by no english Man. Pinson
Speaker 1: claimed that he had his edition newly translated, although according
Speaker 1: to a two thousand and three paper on the Calendar
Speaker 1: of Shepherds by Martha W. Driver, none of the English
Speaker 1: language versions were direct translations. Some passages were completely different
Speaker 1: new information, including one edition that included kind of what
Speaker 1: amounted to an illustrated diet and fitness plan allegedly used
Speaker 1: by shepherds. Pinson was by the way, appointed Henry the
Speaker 1: Ace printer just a few years after his first version
Speaker 1: of the Calendar of Shepherds was published in fifteen sixty five.
Speaker 1: Joaquim Hubri's An Almanac and Prognostication for the Year of
Speaker 1: Our Lord God fifteen sixty five, serving for all Europia
Speaker 1: and all so most necessary for all students, merchants, mariners
Speaker 1: and travelers both by sea and land, composed and gathered
Speaker 1: by Joaquin Hubride, doctor in physic Also the most principal
Speaker 1: fairs in England. Very necessary for people that do resort
Speaker 1: to the same uh. That's when I came out in
Speaker 1: fifteen sixty five. This gives a sense of how much
Speaker 1: these had become seen and marketed as repositories of basically
Speaker 1: all the vital information a person would need to get
Speaker 1: through a given year. Coming up, we're going to talk
Speaker 1: about the first almanac that was printed in the British
Speaker 1: colonies of North America, but first we will pause for
Speaker 1: a sponsor break. The first almanac published in Britain's North
Speaker 1: American colonies was published by mariner Captain William Pierce. Pierce
Speaker 1: arrived in Boston in sixteen thirty two just two years
Speaker 1: after the city founding, and seven years later he produced
Speaker 1: his Almanac, which was an almanac for New England for
Speaker 1: the year sixteen thirty nine. By this time, almanacs were
Speaker 1: becoming recognized as important tools, and in sixteen forty seven
Speaker 1: Harvard published an almanac compiled by one of its fellows,
Speaker 1: Samuel Danforth. Danforth born in sixteen twenty six was an astronomer, mathematician,
Speaker 1: Puritan minister, and a poet, and his almanac reflects these
Speaker 1: various disciplines. His first almanac had an essay that played
Speaker 1: out throughout the book, at the bottom of each page
Speaker 1: or each section, where he shared his thoughts about calendars
Speaker 1: and the heavens, and then in subsequent years he abandoned
Speaker 1: the essay and instead wrote poems to put at the
Speaker 1: end of each month. These are considered secular poems, although
Speaker 1: his Puritan religion and morality is ever present in them.
Speaker 1: For example, one of his brief June poems reads, who
Speaker 1: digged this spring of gardens? Here? Whose mudded streams at
Speaker 1: last run clear? Why should we such water drink? Give
Speaker 1: loosers what they list to think? Yet no one god,
Speaker 1: one faith professed to be new England's interest. Samuel Danforth
Speaker 1: also included in his almanac a chronological table of some
Speaker 1: few memorable occurrences, which was not a predictive model of
Speaker 1: what to expect in the year, but instead a very
Speaker 1: brief history of the twenty year old Massachusetts Bay Colony.
Speaker 1: Some of these are historically fascinating and the insights that
Speaker 1: they offer into dan Forth's views of events that we
Speaker 1: see very differently today. For example, in January of sixteen
Speaker 1: thirty eight, the only note is quote Missus Hutchinson and
Speaker 1: her errors banished. We talked about Ann Hutchinson earlier this
Speaker 1: year in our episode on Mary Dyer and her two
Speaker 1: trials were involved and had multiple facets, so it's interesting
Speaker 1: that dan Forth notes it with just this five words,
Speaker 1: very minimal. Most of his history is this way. An
Speaker 1: entire years news and events are boiled down to just
Speaker 1: a few sentences. Vanforth Almanac was popular and continued for
Speaker 1: quite a number of years, although not with him. He
Speaker 1: gave the almanac to another person after a few years
Speaker 1: when he was offered a pastor position away from Harvard.
Speaker 1: During the time that North America was in the early
Speaker 1: stages of making print. Almanac's mainstream, there was a very
Speaker 1: interesting and different kind of almanac being produced in England.
Speaker 1: This type, called a kloague almanac, didn't originate in England.
Speaker 1: It had actually been in use in Scandinavian countries for
Speaker 1: a long time before it had this surge in popularity
Speaker 1: in England. So a cloague almanac is a wooden rod
Speaker 1: that's squared so that it has four distinct sides, and
Speaker 1: each side represents a quarter of the year, with the
Speaker 1: days marked by notches along the edge, so when it's
Speaker 1: held by the handle, it's red from the bottom to
Speaker 1: the top. And then there are runes and other symbols
Speaker 1: that are carved into the cloague at points on each
Speaker 1: face of the rod to notate the various happenings in
Speaker 1: the season, in the year. And these were obviously not paper.
Speaker 1: They were something that would last, and they were meant
Speaker 1: to be used for more than one year, so they
Speaker 1: didn't reflect projections of a coming year, but more like
Speaker 1: here are the standard patterns you can expect, and they
Speaker 1: served both a practical and sometimes decorative purpose. Is they
Speaker 1: were also sometimes designed to be hung or otherwise displayed
Speaker 1: in the home. I'm imagining this as kind of a
Speaker 1: calendar yardstick. It's much shorter than that, though, it's like
Speaker 1: a thing you can easily hold in your hand. There
Speaker 1: are examples of them in museums, and they're like less
Speaker 1: than a foot long. They're not that big. Okay, to
Speaker 1: move on. Samuel Atkins prepared an almanac for sixteen eighty
Speaker 1: six titled Calendarium Pennsylvanians or America's Messenger, being an almanac
Speaker 1: for the year of Grace sixteen eighty six, where it
Speaker 1: has contained both the English and foreign account the motions
Speaker 1: of the planets through the signs, with the luminaries, conjunctions, aspects, eclipses,
Speaker 1: the ride, southing and setting of the moon, with the
Speaker 1: time when she passeth by or is with the most
Speaker 1: eminent fixed stars, sun rising and setting in the time
Speaker 1: of high water at the city of Philadelphia, et cetera.
Speaker 1: With chronologies and many other notes, rules and tables, very
Speaker 1: fitting for every man to know and have, all which
Speaker 1: is accommodated to the longitude of province of Pennsylvania and
Speaker 1: latitude of forty degrees north, with a table of houses
Speaker 1: for the same which may indifferently serve New England, New
Speaker 1: York East, and West Jersey, Maryland, and most parts of Virginia.
Speaker 1: This is a good indicator that almanacs were also becoming
Speaker 1: more and more localized, and they just wanted you to
Speaker 1: know that everything's in here, you guys. In seventeen hundred,
Speaker 1: Vaux Stellarum the Voice of the Stars was published in
Speaker 1: England by Stationers Company. And this was an almanac written
Speaker 1: by Francis Moore, who was an astrologer, so it had
Speaker 1: a lot of astrology in it. It came to be
Speaker 1: known as Old Moore's Almanac, and that is still in publication. It,
Speaker 1: like many other almanacs, started to include more and more
Speaker 1: different kinds of material, including things like humor and short
Speaker 1: form fiction and medical advice, et cetera, making it not
Speaker 1: only a reference book but also a source of entertainment.
Speaker 1: I think this is sort of what like the Old
Speaker 1: Farmer's Almanac also eventually yes into, which is I think
Speaker 1: the thing that people might have seen the most around
Speaker 1: in the United States today. Following the popularity of Vox Stillarum,
Speaker 1: there was a massive surge in the number of almanac
Speaker 1: titles in North America. The seventeen twenties and thirties were
Speaker 1: the time when several popular almanacs began publication. This included
Speaker 1: the Astronomical Diary in Almanac, which started in seventeen twenty
Speaker 1: five by a Massachusetts teenager named Nathaniel Ames. Nathaniel went
Speaker 1: on to become a physician, but he was only seventeen
Speaker 1: when he first produced his almanac, and that continued for
Speaker 1: fifty years. After Nathaniel died in seventeen sixty four, his
Speaker 1: son continued to publish the work for another decade. Yeah,
Speaker 1: apparently when Nathaniel died there was this slight panic in
Speaker 1: the family because it was such a popular thing and
Speaker 1: a source of income that they saw other publishers kind
Speaker 1: of like thinking they would move in and claim that
Speaker 1: they were the new Nathaniel Ames Almanac, and his son
Speaker 1: was like, I'm just going to take this over. James
Speaker 1: Franklin put out the Rhode Island Almanac in seventeen twenty eight,
Speaker 1: five years before his more famous brother Benjamin started his
Speaker 1: own almanac under the pen name Richard Saunders. Poor Richard's Almanac,
Speaker 1: of course, became very successful, and it sold consistently for
Speaker 1: more than twenty five years, offering Franklin a platform to
Speaker 1: share his thoughts on a wide array of subjects, plenty
Speaker 1: of which is really cringey by today's standards. But Ben
Speaker 1: Franklin not only jumped into a very crowded market with
Speaker 1: his almanac, he was really successful, and he was one
Speaker 1: of the few that managed to keep publication going through
Speaker 1: the Revolutionary War and beyond. Franklin met the demands of
Speaker 1: his audience to do so through things like adding some
Speaker 1: blank pages. We're going to talk a little bit more
Speaker 1: about that in a minute, or introducing small editions that
Speaker 1: were marketed to women and were described as being able
Speaker 1: to easily fit into a woman's handbag. The first nautical almanac,
Speaker 1: which was Nautical Almanac and Astronomical Ephemeris, was released in
Speaker 1: seventeen sixty six. This ties into another old episode of
Speaker 1: ours from twenty fourteen on the discovery of longitude, because
Speaker 1: the information in the almanac, which was published by the
Speaker 1: Astronomer Royal of England, enabled determination of longitude using the
Speaker 1: calculation of lunar distance. Nautical almanacs have since been published
Speaker 1: around the world, and in nineteen twelve the US Congress
Speaker 1: voted to share data, meaning in the most immediate sense
Speaker 1: that the British Nautical Office formed in eighteen thirty two
Speaker 1: and the US Nautical Office formed in eighteen forty nine
Speaker 1: could work together to publish consistent information. Yeah, up to
Speaker 1: that point they were both putting out almanacs, and sometimes
Speaker 1: they weren't saying the same thing. And since those are
Speaker 1: nautical and meant to travel, you can't be as localized.
Speaker 1: Specialized almanacs also started to appear. Just as today there
Speaker 1: are calendars for cat lovers or fans of specific movies
Speaker 1: or TV shows, there were almanacs that aimed at specific demographics,
Speaker 1: like religious or social club affiliations. Some almanacs were also
Speaker 1: used as a way to promote ideas. The American Anti
Speaker 1: Slavery Almanac ran from eighteen thirty six to eighteen forty
Speaker 1: three as a way for the American Anti Slavery Society
Speaker 1: to show people the realities of slavery. That almanac included
Speaker 1: the calendar and statistical information that other almanacs did, but
Speaker 1: it also included writing and imagery to convince more people
Speaker 1: to join the abolitionist movement, including illustrations of black people,
Speaker 1: both enslaved and free, being tortured or being poorly treated.
Speaker 1: And this was apparently quite shocking to some readers. Notable
Speaker 1: anti slavery activists were involved in this almanacs editing and
Speaker 1: publication over the years, including William Lloyd Garrison and Lydia
Speaker 1: Mariah Child. Okay, so how does this translate into day planners?
Speaker 1: We'll talk about that after we hear from the sponsors
Speaker 1: that keep things running here at Stuff You Muss and
Speaker 1: History Class. Even before there was anything labeled as a planner,
Speaker 1: there were planners. Most people were using their almanacs this way,
Speaker 1: often noting down important happenings in their lives or business
Speaker 1: dealings on the pages of the copy they were already
Speaker 1: carrying around with them, because yes, people carried them around
Speaker 1: with them. As almanacs became indispensable to daily life, they
Speaker 1: just were the most obvious place to jot things down.
Speaker 1: In addition to people just starting to write in the
Speaker 1: margins of their almanac's, booksellers and publishers started to address
Speaker 1: the demand for writing space and almanacs by including blank pages.
Speaker 1: Sometimes these would be bound in right along with the content,
Speaker 1: and then other times tipped in after the book had
Speaker 1: been assembled. Earlier, we mentioned Joaquin Hubris and Almanac and
Speaker 1: Prognostication for the year fifteen sixty five, but that was
Speaker 1: not his only almanac. He also created one that he
Speaker 1: called Blank and Perpetual that was intended to give users
Speaker 1: a place to write down things like transactions that they
Speaker 1: wanted to track or other events worth noting throughout the year.
Speaker 1: Some other almanacs started to include blank space in the
Speaker 1: form of a free column included in the tables, or
Speaker 1: even whole blank pages, but all at the end of
Speaker 1: the book, so blank areas that were undefined to be
Speaker 1: used at the owner's discretion. Molly McCarthy notes in her
Speaker 1: twenty thirteen book The Accidental Diarist that the rise in
Speaker 1: popularity of diary keeping in the eighteen hundreds has roots
Speaker 1: in the almanacs of the eighteenth century. Writing quote, the
Speaker 1: commercial success of the pocket diary in the nineteenth century
Speaker 1: had much to do with the genres and record keeping
Speaker 1: habits that preceded it. The almanac paved the way for
Speaker 1: the daily planner. It accustomed buyers to a kind of
Speaker 1: writing that was regular but abbreviated, coded in a way
Speaker 1: that was restrictive but instrumental to a way of seeing
Speaker 1: and being in the world. Pre made diaries one of
Speaker 1: a variety of other blank books. Such as scrapbooks, account books,
Speaker 1: and autograph albums fueled a publishing industry that betrayed a
Speaker 1: commercial fervor for cheap print that began in the colonial
Speaker 1: print shop. So the idea of an almanac diary just
Speaker 1: brief notes on the day kept in an almanac was different,
Speaker 1: of course from a diary where a person might share
Speaker 1: their feelings in secrets, but it followed the form of
Speaker 1: the almanac, so it just listed facts and events as
Speaker 1: a sort of record. There's also this secondary aspect guarding
Speaker 1: diary keeping and almanacs that's linked to economic class that
Speaker 1: was in play historically. So when it was common for
Speaker 1: people to start using their almanacs as diaries, people with
Speaker 1: more money could pay to have extra blank pages tipped in.
Speaker 1: So even putting one's thoughts on paper in any kind
Speaker 1: of expansive way became something of a luxury. If you
Speaker 1: only have a brief column and you can't afford more
Speaker 1: paper to be added, you got to keep things brief.
Speaker 1: Over time, though, both demand for more notation space and
Speaker 1: a drop in the reputation of the almanac led to
Speaker 1: the various facts, tables and title information being supplanted by
Speaker 1: more blank pages until Finally, somebody had the thought to
Speaker 1: produce a calendar that was intended primarily for writing in
Speaker 1: was a date book. In seventeen forty eight, Robert Dodsley
Speaker 1: of London printed a new memoranda book for the following year.
Speaker 1: This is a small book that had space for financial
Speaker 1: transactions as well as appointments and notes, and it became
Speaker 1: very popular in England, so much so that other publishers
Speaker 1: started producing them, and then one publisher got the idea
Speaker 1: that someone should sell them in North America, and that
Speaker 1: person was publisher Robert Aitken. Aitkin was born in Scotland
Speaker 1: in seventeen thirty four and emigrated to the Colonies around
Speaker 1: seventeen seventy. I saw different years for this. From seventeen
Speaker 1: sixty nine to seventeen seventy one he set up a
Speaker 1: printing shop in Philadelphia, and just a few years after
Speaker 1: he got there he produced the complete annual account book
Speaker 1: and calendar for the Pocket or Desk for seventeen seventy three.
Speaker 1: This date book wasn't completely devoid of some of the
Speaker 1: tables found in almanacs. It had those, but it was secondary.
Speaker 1: It really just had a lot more blank pages. Fifty
Speaker 1: two of them, so one spread for each week, and
Speaker 1: they were laid out in a way that the user
Speaker 1: could easily scan the whole week, so it was easy
Speaker 1: to write down things like appointments and then reference them
Speaker 1: again later. That was something that was less fluid and
Speaker 1: smooth if you were writing appointment on a page that
Speaker 1: shared space with things like planetary movements, the moon phases,
Speaker 1: and weather predictions. On the left page of a two
Speaker 1: page spread for the week, there was a grid laid
Speaker 1: out to note expenses and income, and then on the
Speaker 1: right hand side it had dated cells to write whatever
Speaker 1: was pertinent to any given day. It sounds revolutionary and
Speaker 1: it was, except not many people were into it. It
Speaker 1: was such a departure from the way people had been
Speaker 1: accustomed to noting their days that they needed to have
Speaker 1: it explained to them that explanation was included in the book.
Speaker 1: People were just not really ready for the idea of
Speaker 1: writing down things that were going to happen in the future.
Speaker 1: They were accustomed to and content with, noting what had
Speaker 1: already happened on a given day. If they did want
Speaker 1: to record more thoughts, they tended to keep those in
Speaker 1: a separate, dedicated diary that wasn't tied to any kind
Speaker 1: of calendar. Plus, all those blank pages made Aitken's annual
Speaker 1: hard to carry around, even though it was still relatively small.
Speaker 1: When Akin published a follow up book in seventeen seventy four,
Speaker 1: he made it an almanac, not a date book, with
Speaker 1: just a few blank pages, and then he ultimately dropped
Speaker 1: those as well, although he continued working as a publisher. Yeah,
Speaker 1: he kind of gave up on the whole almanac date
Speaker 1: book thing. But obviously, date books with formats very similar
Speaker 1: to Aitkins were eventually adopted in the US. By the
Speaker 1: second decade of the nineteenth century, their popularity in Great
Speaker 1: Britain had finally kind of worked its way over to
Speaker 1: North America. If Eitkin had lived twenty years past his
Speaker 1: death in eighteen oh two, he would have seen the
Speaker 1: surge and popularity of those books. They became almost a
Speaker 1: little bit of a fad, and then people quickly realized
Speaker 1: the benefit of having a record and planner close at hand.
Speaker 1: How this fad popped up is difficult to track, but
Speaker 1: one contributor was really just a simple matter of materials.
Speaker 1: Paper had become more readily available, so printers could print
Speaker 1: more different products and charge less, meaning they were there
Speaker 1: was a greater chance that those products would find customers.
Speaker 1: During the US Civil War, date books were issued to
Speaker 1: Union soldiers, and once the war ended, pocket planners became
Speaker 1: even more popular. They spread from metropolitan areas to less
Speaker 1: densely populated towns. These also started to reflect a shift
Speaker 1: in the way people lived, as they had columns for
Speaker 1: bill due dates, spaces for addresses of friends and acquaintances
Speaker 1: and appointments, as well as notes. But what wasn't there
Speaker 1: was all the almanac data, as that part had shrunk
Speaker 1: out of the pages. The popularity of the date book
Speaker 1: had increased. The date book became so popular that by
Speaker 1: the end of the nineteenth century, Montgomery Ward introduced a
Speaker 1: product called the Standard Diary, which was meant to offer
Speaker 1: anyone the chance to fully account for their time and finances.
Speaker 1: This rise in popularity of date books, which were called
Speaker 1: everything from diaries to pocketbooks too, still sometimes almanacs et cetera,
Speaker 1: had this questionable effect that we are all still grappling
Speaker 1: with today. Right planner consumers started to consider how to
Speaker 1: make the most of their time because they started to
Speaker 1: think about time differently. When your time is noted in
Speaker 1: the margins of something like an almanac and how your
Speaker 1: day played out. It may seem a little bit secondary
Speaker 1: to a larger picture, but when it's the focus of
Speaker 1: an entire blank book, you are almost certain to think
Speaker 1: about it with more gravity, and it changed the way
Speaker 1: that people thought about their days and about themselves. As
Speaker 1: the twentieth century began, date books once again evolved, as
Speaker 1: they had become so integral to daily life that branded versions,
Speaker 1: which were essentially advertisement vehicles, started to pop up. Department
Speaker 1: stores would give away free planners that had ads throughout
Speaker 1: their pages, just as almanacs had included everything from patent
Speaker 1: medicine ads to calls for abolition. Planners with marketing also
Speaker 1: became common, and of course, the twentieth century also saw
Speaker 1: wide diversification of planners. Today, design variations abound, from what's
Speaker 1: featured on the cover to how planning is managed within
Speaker 1: the pages. There are general planners, goal setting planners, planners
Speaker 1: for specific activities like running or sewing, or even how
Speaker 1: many books you read. Business Research Insights reports that in
Speaker 1: twenty twenty two, the diaries and planners market was worth
Speaker 1: more than a billion dollars. That's a billion with a
Speaker 1: b and it's projected to reach almost one point five
Speaker 1: billion by twenty thirty one. And this actually shows a
Speaker 1: big bounce back from a drop that happened during pandemic lockdown.
Speaker 1: And it's interesting because it also shows growth despite digital
Speaker 1: options due to people valuing what the report calls a
Speaker 1: disciplined lifestyle and a new surge in the popularity of
Speaker 1: diary keeping. So things are evolving, but we're just repeating
Speaker 1: everything that's come before, so I hope you know we
Speaker 1: also I will note this cover primarily like English language
Speaker 1: diaries and almanacs. Sure, we'll talk about one little factoid
Speaker 1: I came across in my research that I couldn't really
Speaker 1: find a lot of information in another language, and we'll
Speaker 1: get to that in our behind the scenes, But right
Speaker 1: now I have a little listener mail and then we'll
Speaker 1: go finish our recovery from our New Year's Eve celebrations.
Speaker 1: This is about Masons, which we talked about on our
Speaker 1: William Morgan episodes. This is from our listener, Greg who writes, Hi,
Speaker 1: Holly and Tracy. I found your podcast on the abduction
Speaker 1: of William Morgan fascinating, not only the story itself, but
Speaker 1: because my dad was a Mason, and he was always
Speaker 1: a bit vague about it. He was a successful small
Speaker 1: town businessman and sometime in the nineteen seventies he was
Speaker 1: invited to join the Masons. As a kid, I always
Speaker 1: wanted to wear his sparkly red fez hat with the
Speaker 1: long tassel, which we still have to this day. He
Speaker 1: never really told me much about it, except that it
Speaker 1: was a social group. Over time, he became an inactive member.
Speaker 1: I asked him why he stopped going, and it really
Speaker 1: just came down to social circles. He and Mom were
Speaker 1: flower lovers. Dad hybridized iris and day lilies, and they
Speaker 1: found their participation in flower clubs more fun for them. Okay,
Speaker 1: I'm kind of in awe of your dad right now, Greg,
Speaker 1: but the Masons were very good to my dad. There
Speaker 1: is a rule in the Masonic organization that they will
Speaker 1: take care of any Mason who lives long enough to
Speaker 1: run out of money. This was the case with my dad,
Speaker 1: who lived to be ninety two despite his savings. We
Speaker 1: all know the high cost of living and assisted living
Speaker 1: drains as savings quickly. That's where the Masons came in
Speaker 1: once Dad was out of money. Obviously, not counting his
Speaker 1: monthly Social Security benefits. The Masons stepped in and they
Speaker 1: paid Dad's expenses until he passed. This was probably six
Speaker 1: to eight months worth of expenses. Our family will forever
Speaker 1: be grateful to the kindness of Masons. Uh, that's a
Speaker 1: great story. I love it attached is it two for one?
Speaker 1: It's a picture of Greg's dad and his cat, Priscilla.
Speaker 1: Priscilla liked to take rides on my dad's walker. My
Speaker 1: parents had three cats, and they knew when it was bedtime.
Speaker 1: Dad would call them and they would run in and
Speaker 1: beat him to the bed. Once they knew he was asleep,
Speaker 1: they would get up and do their nightly kiddy things.
Speaker 1: Then they would be bedside at five am for when
Speaker 1: Dad woke up. All of my parents' kiddies were the best.
Speaker 1: When it was time to move Dad to assisted living,
Speaker 1: two of the kiddies found good homes and the third,
Speaker 1: his favorite, decided to cross the Rainbow Bridge. I'm sorry
Speaker 1: you lost your dad. He sounds amazing. And this is
Speaker 1: the cutest picture I've ever seen. It's so funny because
Speaker 1: the cat is just like, this is my conveyance now.
Speaker 1: I love it so much, and the cat is adorable
Speaker 1: and your dad sounds like a wonderful person. If you
Speaker 1: would like to write to us make me cry a
Speaker 1: little bit, you can do that at History History Podcast
Speaker 1: at iHeartRadio dot com. You can also find us on
Speaker 1: social media as Missed in History and if you have
Speaker 1: not yet subscribed, you can do that on the iHeartRadio
Speaker 1: app or anywhere that you listen to your favorite shows.
Speaker 1: Stuff you Missed in History Class is a production of iHeartRadio.
Speaker 1: For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
Speaker 1: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.