The diary begins with a description of Bowerman's childhood and early adulthood. Entries are composed of religious reflection, descriptions of meetings attended in Pennsylvania and New Jersey, family news, and social calls.

Lydia Barton Cooke was a Philadelphia Quaker who joined the Hicksites in 1828. Diary entries include prayers, poems, descriptions of domestic duties, social calls from family and friends, Quaker meetings, and discussions of the health of her husband and children. Cooke's diaries also feature religious reflections, potentially concerning the separation between Orthodox and Hicksite.

Emma Waln's diary entries detail her active social life, including descriptions of attendance of various social events, including whist parties, women's clubs meetings, lectures, and parties, as well as more informal social calls from friends and family. Waln's diary also describes attending classes and lectures at Swarthmore College.

Early diary entries describe Sallie's classes and studies in her efforts to earn her high school diploma, while later entries describe social calls, illnesses in the family, and other family news, as well as Sallie's responsibilities as the eldest daughter living at home.

Anna Yarnall's diary entries describe weather, social calls, domestic duties, family news, attendance at meetings, births, deaths, and marriages within the Quaker community, and the health of herself and family members.