‘This is a volume that is a must read for those who are engaged in the history of New Brunswick and for those who themselves are trying to tease out the stories of women in the nineteenth- century settler world of North America.’

"These diaries present an engaging sense of history from below, as lived and felt by its participants…Consistently well documented, this study nicely positions the lives of these New Brunswick women within the larger context of nineteenth-century women’s history."

" ‘I wish to keep a record’ gives immediacy and interpretive shape to the penned thoughts of twenty-eight 19^th-century New Brunswick-born girls and women who were witnesses to their places and times.　 Dr. Campbell captures their lives in motion, their hands and minds seldom idle, as they journeyed through private and public spaces. Framed by nuanced analysis, Dr. Campbell’s composite portrait effectively depicts the female self and society at a time of profound change in New Brunswick, and enriches our growing understanding of women’s social, spiritual, and working lives in 19^th-century North America."

"Campbell's sensitive handling and contextualization of twenty-eight womens' diaries plunges us directly into their households, workplaces and social circles, and into their spirituality, intellect and activism. At once engaging, she brings out the significance of these diaries whose power lies in their intimate depiction of daily life in New Brunswick."

" ‘ I wish to keep a record’ is clearly written in an accessible style. Gail Campbell’s work is solidly grounded in the relevant scholarly literature, particularly that of women’s history, family history, and community history, but also that of life-writing, religion, education, and New Brunswick."

Canadian Committee on Women’s History Book prize