Lydia Rider Nye's journal is unique: it is presently the only known journal kept by a wife of a ship captain during a voyage along the Pacific Coast prior to 1848. Indeed, it may be the only known journal kept by an American hide and tallow sea captain's wife while voyaging along the Pacific Coast in the first half of the nineteenth century.
Other wives accompanied their husbands aboard ship during the early 19th century, but without recording their experiences, as detailed by the editor in his prologue.
Nye's journal and letters were kept to amuse herself and inform her family. They record her voyage to Hawaii, her life in Honolulu, and her voyage on her husband's ship to Oregon and California. Her activities, places visited, and people met are fully recorded in her journal entries which contain important sidelights on the history of Hawaii, Oregon, and California.
Traveling alone by ship from New England to Hawaii, Mrs. Nye spent four months in Honolulu awaiting the arrival of her husband. She then joined him on a voyage first to the Columbia River for a brief stay, followed by a longer visit to San Francisco, including an inland trip to the Napa Valley, then Monterey, and Santa Barbara.
Astoria, Fort Vancouver, Clatsop and John McLoughlin are prominent in the portion of the journal dealing with Oregon and the Columbia River. The Nye's were McLoughlin's guest several times. Many of the Methodist missionaries, including Jason Lee, visited the Nye's on board the brig Fama.
While in California, the Nye's spent time in San Francisco, the Napa Valley, Monterey, Santa Cruz, and Santa Barbara. Among those mentioned at length in her journal are Capt. William A. Leidsdorff, George C. Yount, Thomas O. Larkin and wife, Alpheus B. Thompson, and numerous native Californios. Mrs. Nye provides a description of the hide trade, in which her husband participated.
Appendixes supplement the text, and include Lydia Rider Nye's Guest Book Kept in Honolulu; William Paty's Journal Account of the British Seizure of Honolulu, 1842; King Kamehameha III Gala Luau Celebrating Restoration of the Hawaiian Kingdom; and Sir George Simpson's Description of the California Hide and Tallow Trade.
