Six folders of material relating to Mary Sackett and the Sackett family, including Mary Sackett’s journal kept on a trip from New York City to Lanoa, Illinois in 1841 and 1842.

The journal, kept for her brother, is detailed and informative about such topics as the daily activities while traveling by canal boat and steamship, descriptions of the passing landscape including a stop at Niagara Falls, life in rural Illinois while waiting for a house to be built, and the daily problems and chores of pioneer women in the 1840s.

An 1849 manuscript pioneer newspaper, The Prairie Flower, of which Mary Sackett was the editor, consists mainly of original stories, poems, editorials and reports on local doings, sayings and notices relating to the Pleasant Valley Reading Circle. This group was formed to provide amusement “during the coming winter months.” Also, a recipe for taffy, some penmanship exercises and two colored drawings, all undated. There is also some genealogical information regarding the Sackett family collected in 1945.