Author Martha Greene Phillips is extraordinarily attached to history. Her father was 79 when she was born. She is just one generation removed from a man who was alive as the Civil War was ending and served in the Spanish-American War.

But she has an even stronger connection to the past – eight leather-bound journals of canoe excursions taken in the early 1900s by her father and a group of friends along with his young sons and their friends. The journals were written by Phillips' father, Howard Greene, one for every trip that was made. He also meticulously copied each journal for members of the travel parties, individually typing each one, and Phillips was fortunate to inherit a complete set.