This anonymous handwritten volume contains several texts, including a diary of a sea voyage from Boston to San Francisco in 1852, a description of an 1863 trip on the Columbia River, and miscellaneous handwritten recipes, notes and clippings.

James Gerrish was an Oregon pioneer of 1844, and a Methodist circuit preacher who worked in Oregon and Washington in the 1850s-1860s. His diaries, dated 1854-1863, record his daily life travelling and preaching to communities on the frontier.