Written by a British officer in frank expression of his views in the critical period of the siege of Boston in 1775, lost by its owner soon after in the British retreat from Philadelphia, buried for almost a century in the possessions of a Connecticut family, unearthed by Elizabeth Ellery Dana, and forever rescued from the scrap heap of history by the Harvard University Press--this, in brief, is the story of the "Diary of a British officer in Boston in 1775" which will shortly issue from the Press.

In that year Lieutenant John Barker wrote down for his own amusement his keenly critical observations of the famous events at Concords, Lexington, and Bunker Hill, his opinions, often expressed with biting sarcasm, of General Gage, Colonel Smith and Colonel Clark, and his caustic comments on Yankee and British general staffs alike. There by he provided a contemporary historical document of exceedingly great value.

But the record was almost lost to posterity. In the 1870's Edward Everett Hall '39 got wind of it. He mentioned the diary's existence in a class among the members of whom was Elizabeth Ellery Dana, daughter of the famous Richard Henry Dana. 'With great difficulty, Miss Dana traced the document from Philadelphia, where it was known to have disappeared, to Connecticut. Discovering it finally, she purchased it, and William Dean Howells, then editor of the Atlantic Monthy, was so impressed with its importance, that he published a few excerpts in 1872 with notes by Miss Dana.

The document's wanderings did not end there. Soon after it disappeared mysteriously from a safe deposit vault, and now only two manuscript copies, one by Miss Dana, the other by her sister remain.