Lilian Swann Saarinen papers, circa 1909-1977

Saarinen was a prolific journal writer and her diaries are in bound volume and loose leaf form. Bound diary volumes from 1930/1931 to 1942 document her life from her "coming out year" and continue through the early years of her marriage to Eero Saarinen. Her 1939 diary opens in Florence, Italy, in August 1939, days before Germany's invasion of Poland, and describes the tenuous situation the newlyweds found themselves in and their difficulties finding passage back to the United States. The diary labeled 1936 and 1937 also contains a series of entries for 1958-1959. Written on the page at the front of the 1939 December-1942 January is the inscription: "Diary-Cranbrook from Sept 1939 To:" and "The new Mrs. E. E. Saarinen!" but any original pages that existed from September-November are missing. The months August-October 1939 are included in the previous diary.

Loose diary entries, beginning around circa 1934 and continuing to 1953, with scattered additional entries in the 1950s-1970s, focus primarily on Saarinen's marriage to Eero Saarinen. They document in depth her emotional struggles as a working mother attempting to forge her own artistic identity, maintain a healthy family environment for her children, and support Eero Saarinen's growing international success, while not allowing that to stymie her own artistic ambitions. These folders include many handwritten notes and drafts of "letters" to Eero Saarinen which are journalistic in nature and include dream journals, "writings and ravings just before wedding," and notes found with her diaries.

Saarinen's engagement calendars are heavily annotated with notes documenting her professional appointments, progress on works of art and commissions, and Saarinen's leisure activities.

Some of the diary entries within volumes are not strictly chronological and often do not occur in a linear fashion.

The bulk of this series has been scanned with the exception of blank pages of diaries and unannotated pages of engagement calendars.