On this page, you can explore the catalog of available transcriptions of the Joseph Mathia Svoboda Diaries. The original diary pages are not viewable on our mobile site but can be found on the desktop site. One may also refer to the original diary images in ContentDM: http://digitalcollections.lib.washington.edu/cdm/search/collection/iraqdiaries
In several of the diaries, pockets in the back covers hold a variety of memorabilia including newspaper clippings, pictures, and souvenirs. Some of the textual material has been transcribed and is visible in the HTML display. This was not done consistently but the contents of the pockets are displayed in the images in ContentDM.
In many of the diaries, there are marginal notes in Arabic written in ink by the Baghdad historian Yaqub Serkis sometime after he received them from Alexander Svoboda probably in the late 1920s. Because these notes are a later addition extrinsic to Joseph Mathia Svoboda’s writings, we have gathered them in an appendix where they are listed under unique identifiers–for example [A47_006_09:001]–recording the diary number, place in the diary, and numerical order.
For some of the diaries, we have prepared minimal notes and glosses as well as extensive word lists.