Emma Lena Smith Diaries

The Emma Lena Smith Diaries contain 23 composition books and spiral notebooks that cover the years 1936 to 1967. There is a gap in the diaries from September 1953 to October 1955. Emma Lena Smith was a housewife in the Central Valley of California. Her diaries cover her day-to-day life including canning fruits and vegetables, her interactions with her husband, family and neighbors, and attending weekly and annual events, such as church services, the Ladies Aid meetings, the Women's Christian Temperance Union conventions (WCTU) and school graduations. Many of her entries are written about her second husband Andrew, her sister Bertha, her daughter Mildred, son-in-law Mitchell, grandson Dickie and a various neighbors. Andrew's daily work was on the farm, at the local plant, helping neighbors with their farm work and his participation in local associations, including the Veterans Camp.

There is mention of a local Japanese American family that Andrew, Emma's husband, would occasionally help with their farming needs and also picking up some of their belongings when they returned from a WWII Incarceration Camp. This would most likely be in reference to Toraichi Fukui and his wife, Fusayo Fukui.