This document is Wheaton Family Financial Records, which was written by Laban Morey Wheaton. It recorded the Wheatons’ cash expended during the period from October 1851 to September 1854. Laban Morey Wheaton is believed to be related to Wheaton College (Norton, Massachusetts), “Upon his death in 1865, Laban Morey was regarded as an upstanding citizen of Norton, one who served his town, his county, and his state. remembered for his loving regard for his wife, his commitment to Wheaton Female Seminary’s success, and his numerous contributions to Norton.” (Recourse: https://wheatoncollege.edu/about-wheaton-college/history-mission/founding/the-wheaton-family/laban-morey-wheaton/)

The expense record is recorded in a unified format, with the year in the upper left corner, the dates on the left, the items of expense in the middle, and the numbers of expenses on the right. This record can show the family’s expenses in all aspects of life. Compared with long paragraphs of text, the cashbook can better reflect the format and style of recording expenses of the family, which is easier to process and more visually organized. I think that the author’s family background and historical context of 19-century Massachusetts will help me to further analyze the text, for example, analyzing the topic of whether there are some factors that influenced the family’s consumption levels and styles.