Q. CMOS 14.122 offers advice on how to date an entry in an unpublished diary, but I do not see full instructions for citing such a diary. Could you offer a sample footnote or two?
A. Let’s start with an example of how to cite an unpublished letter in a note (adapted from the examples in CMOS 14.127):
1. George Creel to Colonel House, September 25, 1918, box 31, folder 986, Edward Mandell House Papers, Yale University Library.
That’s American journalist George Creel writing to Edward M. House, an American diplomat and adviser, at that time, to President Woodrow Wilson. The example assumes that House has been identified more fully in the text. (See this article on House in Britannica for the form used in the note; “Colonel” was an honorary rather than a military title.)
A letter is similar to a diary entry, and House’s diaries are also included in the same collection at Yale. House’s diary entry from the same day as the letter could be cited as follows (and note that “Colonel House,” the addressee in the letter from Creel, isn’t used in this context):
2. House, diary, September 25, 1918, Edward Mandell House Papers, Yale University Library, original transcript, ser. 2, vol. 6, https://
The diary entry, unlike the letter, has been digitized, so we included a URL for the part of the collection where the diary may be found (plus a few more details about the location in the collection). For a diary that isn’t in a public collection, adjust your entry accordingly. Here’s a general-purpose form that can be adapted as needed:
3. So-and-So, diary, February 3, 2026, quoted with the permission of [name of person who owns the diary].
For an alternate date format that may be suitable for works that cite many letters or diary entries, see CMOS 14.122. See also 12.3.