Biographical Note

Jeanie Groome Black was a resident of New Castle, Delaware, during the late-nineteenth century. Her spouse was John Janvier Black, surgeon and resident physician to Blockley Hospital in Philadelphia. She had two children, Elizabeth Groome Black and Armitage Middleton Black.

Sources:

Biographical information derived from the collection.

Scope and Content Note

These three bound diaries were kept by Delaware resident Jeannie Groome Black during her travels in Europe with a group of ten Delawareans from October 13, 1890, to November 25, 1891.The group left on October 15, 1890, from New York City, on the steamer S.S. Friesland of the Red Star Line for Antwerp, Belgium, and returned to New York fourteen months later on the City of Paris, which departed from Liverpool, England on November 25, 1891. Along with Jeannie Groome Black, other travelers in the party included Mrs. James G. Knowles; Miss Mattie Knowles; Mrs. Margaret Lea and her daughter, Miss Sue Cummins; and Mrs. Margaret Beasten. There are occasional references to prominent Delawareans, including Senator George Gray, whose daughter, Miss Nannie Gray, accompanied Mrs. Black and her children Elizabeth and Armitage. Senator Gray and his wife traveled to Paris in July 1891, to spend the summer with their daughter and the other people in the party.

The diaries hold botanical specimens (including red clover, ivy, and violets) pressed between the pages as well as cuttings from hotel letterheads, news clippings, and other memorabilia, all of which was collected from visits to Antwerp, Frankfurt, Paris, Nuremberg, Venice, Geneva, London, and other European cities. The volume also contains newspaper clippings noting the deaths of Delaware residents known by Black.