190-year-old Diary Bound for Library
Left in Taxi
Cory Luxmoore, a descendant of James Logan, who served as William Penn's agent for Pennsylvania in the early 1700s, came from his England home this month to donate a family diary to the Library Company in Philadelphia.
Library Company Associated Librarian James N. Green told American Libraries he had the manuscript in his possession "about five minutes" September 4, when Luxmoore took it back because he promised to allow another person to see it. The September 16 Philadelphia Inquirer reported that after leaving the library he entered his hotel and realized the manuscript was in the taxicab.
The 1808 diary was written by Deborah Logan, the wife of James Logan's grandson, Green said. "She presided over the great house of Stenton, a country house built by James Logan, one of the most powerful political figures in Pennsylvania in the early 1800s."
The diary was found in an apartment building hallway September 14 by maintenance man Tom Brennan, who will receive a $1,000 reward from the Library Company.
Posted September 21, 1998.
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