In the winter of 1991 the Boston & Maine Railroad Historical Society acquired a rare collection of forty-three diaries kept by Philip T. Adams, an engineman on the Essex branch of the Eastern Railroad, later to become the Boston & Maine Railroad. These diaries open windows into history, recording the intimacies of the day-to-day operation of the railroad, glimpses of life in the town of Essex, and a personal look into the life and affairs of Philip Adams and his family.