Greetings, Lynn!

First of all, I agree with the respondents who see no
ethical conflict as the question was originally posed;
 however, it is entirely possible there is a copyright
issue here.

Who owns the copyright to the diaries?  When they were
acquired (by purchase, by donation, etc.), were the
intellectual property rights conveyed by deed of gift
along with the physical object?  If not, and this is
frequently the case with older items in museum and
archival collections, your institution needs to clear
its title before granting rights to a third party for
use.

Unpublished material is a particularly tricky area of 
copyright law.  Even if the creator or donor of the
diaries is long departed, his/her estate or heirs may
hold rights to the property. 

Before proceeding with publication, it would be up to
the scholars to determine if rights need to be granted
for the publication (This is different from the
transcription which I presume was done for the purpose
of preserving the original document from harm.)  

However, you don't want to get entangled in the middle
of a lawsuit over copyright infringement if somebody
fails to clear this up down the line. Word your
permission carefully and consult an attorney with
experience in copyright/intellectual property rights. 

Judith Turner
Whitefish Bay, WI


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