George Washington, 1732–1799.
Diary written in the leaves of the 1762 Virginia Almanack, 1762.
Jay I. Kislak Collection, Rare Book and Special Collections Division, Library of Congress (135.1)
George Washington Diary
Both a manuscript and a printed book, George Washington’s 1762 almanac documents the activities at his Mount Vernon plantation. He describes mainly planting tobacco and raising cattle and sheep, although financial matters and slaves are also mentioned. Washington kept a diary from 1747, when he was a teenage surveyor, until his death in 1799, with the notable exception of the period during most of the Revolutionary War. With the addition of this 1762 record, the Library of Congress now holds thirty-seven of the forty-one known original Washington diaries.