Things to Remember

I often work with old scrapbooks that were donated to the museum library.  Researchers like them.  Contrary to popular belief, everything isn't out there on the Internet, and scrapbooks are a great source for personal information and clippings from old and obscure publications.

Archivists tolerate scrapbooks in their collections for the research value, but scrapbooks are a paper conservator's worst nightmare.  The acidic, brittle paper, crumbling clippings, dust, mold, glued on photographs, pressed plants and random mementos of all sorts of material.  Eek! You never know what you'll find in a scrapbook.  If archival conservators had their way, they would photograph each page to preserve the content, then throw the whole mess in the trash. Basically, they are dangerous to other paper and photographs stored in the archive.

Of course this fussy and expensive solution isn't practical.  For one thing, there are just too many of them. It wasn't that long ago when most girls and many women kept scrapbooks.

In fact, these are pages from my childhood scrapbook.  Mom helped us make nice scrapbooks, and she kept mine for many years. When I saw it again, I was surprised how much work went into it at such a young age.  Kids had longer attention spans back then.

Mom cared about preserving family history and recording life's little events. We once used scrapbooks, letters and diaries to do this, and now we have Facebook and blogs. Well, I got it from someone :-)

It's interesting that "scrapbooking" is a verb now and a popular hobby once again.

My old scrapbook is stuffed with things like letters, school assignments and postcards...

And here's the mail order form for my first saddle (bought with babysitting money) and a receipt from the western store for a shirt, hat and boots. I see mom typed a note on the saddle order to "send it quickly" because "Suzy was riding in the Woodland Park rodeo parade." So sweet.

And yes, what's a scrapbook without glued on photos and cards? So time passes, and the trivial eventually becomes the priceless.

At the museum I'm starting work on another collection from the pioneer Denny family.  It has a scrapbook one of the Denny daughters made in the early 1900's, full of things like her dance cards, fashion pictures and clippings.

But this was interesting. Inside the front cover, the publisher had printed these guidelines for a young person starting a scrapbook:

My memory book shall keep for me a record of: 

My home
Recollections of my father and mother
My school days
My first position
My travels
Autographs of my friends
Wedding, birth and obituary notices
Pressed flowers and leaves
Music; what it means to me and what I like best
Works of art, my favorites
The science I am most interested in
History and events during my lifetime 
Books I like best and my favorite poems
Pictures of people of note
Programs of plays and concerts
My ideals and their inspiration
My hobbies
My clubs
My family tree 

"O Memories, O Past that Is.."
George Eliot