Diaries Offer Reactions to World Events

Peter Krogstad in 1920

 The UW-Stout Archives collections include a variety of personal collections from Stout Alumni and faculty, and also from area residents. Some of our most interesting collections include diaries, which provide fantastic snapshots of their writers' lives. Before he graduated from Stout in 1920, Peter Krogstad served as an Army censor during World War I. His typewritten daily accounts of his life in wartime France include descriptions of frequent bombing scares, notes about soldiers' letters that he read as part of his job, and details about his social life. Krogstad reported on the arrival of Company H from his home town of Menomonie, Wisconsin in March of 1918, and he sadly noted severe injuries that the group received during an action on the front in August. (Click on each image to enlarge)

Freda Dusel Owen was a similarly avid writer. She was born in Barron County, Wisconsin in 1885 and lived on a farm near Menomonie as an adult. The diaries in her collection at the UW-Stout Archives date from 1942 to 1974 and include consistent daily entries about her life on the farm, area activities, and national events. These entries from November, 1963 are her reactions to the assassination of president John F. Kennedy.