Scrapbooks and Albums, Theories and Practice:
An Annotated
Bibliography
by Danielle Bias, Rebecca Black, and Susan Tucker
This bibliography takes into consideration the scrapbook's context
within the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. We think of the scrapbook
and the album as part of an individual response to photography, printing,
and the desire to document oneself.
Creating one's own web page, for example, is very much in the same
tradition as scrapbook-making.
We have included only published works or papers presented at
conferences for which proceedings are available. Please let us know
of works we missed. See also our links to other cites online.
Abbas, Ackbar. "Walter Benjamin's Collector: The Fate of Modern
Experience." New Literary History 20, 1988: 216-236.
This article provides an introduction to the collector as a "dangerous but
domesticated person," a metaphor used by such writers as Flaubert, Nietzsche,
Conrad, and Fowles. Abbas discusses the rise of the collector from Renaissance
Florence through the early twentieth century and then devotes attention to the
reception of Benjamin's ideas. For persons interested in scrapbooks, the article
helps in locating the relation between past and future, in examining Benjamin's
theory on collecting and rewriting, and in setting the stage for any linkage
between the person making a scrapbook and the person later (re)viewing it.
Allen, Alistair and Joan Hoverstadt. The
History of Printed Scraps. London: New Cavendish Books, 1983.
This book presents an overview of the development of paper ephemera from the
1800s to 1930s in Europe and the United States. Production techniques and quality
of paper ephemera are examined along with the development of ephemera collection
as a hobby, particularly the collection of holiday cards, programs, invitations,
and name cards. The greater part of the book is an illustrated catalog of selected
scraps.
American Antiquarian Society. "Albums" in
Under Its Generous Dome: the Collections and Programs of the American Antiquarian
Society. Worcester: American Antiquarian Society, 1992. p. 131.
Within this guide to holdings of the American Antiquarian Society, a
brief section is devoted to 80 albums in the Society's collection. As
most repository's guides provide access to collections by names of the
creators, this listing provides an alternate approach. See also, Gernes,
by whom the Society's list was compiled.
Barthes, Roland. Camera Lucida: Reflections on Photography. 1980.
Trans. Richard Howard. New York: Hill and Wang, 1981.
Belk, Russell W. and Melanie Wallendorf. "Of Mice and Men: Gender
Identity in Collecting" in Susan M. Pearce, ed., Interpreting Objects
and
Collections. New York, Routledge, 1994.
Bennetts, Leslie. "African
Dreamer." Vanity Fair 435, November 1996: 206-222.
The diary habit of photographer and artist Peter Beard is tucked
within this biographical piece. His diaries are called "overstuffed
volumes grotesquely swollen with the detritus of a life, each page densely
layered with photographs and an astonishing assortment of other
items....." Beard's own comments on these books sound much like many
statements on scrapbooks.
Blais, Madeleine. "Division of Things Past: An Account of the
Making and Unmaking of a Family Album." Lear's 5(11), January
1993: 64-5, 84-5.
This article tells of dividing a family scrapbook among the author and
her siblings. Once the photos and other memorabilia were divided, they
lost the full impact of their meaning and became misleading. The
scrapbook lost its temporal context, seeming to have no logical beginning
or end, and presenting an unrealistic picture of a perpetually happy and
organized family. The scrapbook taken as a whole illustrated these
sentiments along with the often difficult and confusing experiences the
siblings faced as a family. Overall, this article provides an personal
view on the importance of maintaining scrapbooks intact.
Boerdam, Jaap and Martinius, Warna Osterbach. "Family Photographs:
A Sociological Approach." The Netherlands Journal of Sociology
16(2), October 1980: 95-120.
This articles examines the social behavior that underlies amateur
photography within the family. Types of occasions photographed and
reasons why these photographs are taken are examined. The social and
technological evolution of family photography is also examined. Many of
the authors' observations can be used in evaluating the photographs
featured in scrapbooks.
Bogardus, Ralph F. "Their Carte de Visite to Prosperity: A Family's
Snapshots as Autobiography and Art." Journal of American Culture
4, Spring 1981: 114-33.
This article discusses the photo album of an Alabama family created
from 1930 to 1950. The author observes that the photos in this album
record the family's increasing financial prosperity. The photo appear to
become more conservative and less artistic as the family becomes more
affluent. These changes are likely the result of time constraints,
changing interests, and the geographic dispersal of the family.
Bourdieu, Pierre. "The Cult of Unity and Cultivated Difference." In
Pierre Bourdieu, et al. Photography: A Middle Brow Art. 1965. Trans.
Shaun Whiteside. Stanford: Stanford Univ. Press, 1990. 13-72.
Boye, Marie-France. "Fragments de Voyages Amoureux." Maison et
Jardin, 385: 84-9, July/August, 1992.
This article describes a scrapbook collection containing travel
memorabilia. The creators of the scrapbooks, Carole and Jean-Philippe
Gauvin, include traditional items such as postcards, maps, and photographs
in the albums, as well as watercolors, sketches, and their personal thoughts
about their travels.
Brunig, Jennifer. "Pages of History: A Study of Newcomb
Scrapbooks."Archival and Bibliographic Series of the Newcomb College
Center for Research on Women 4, 1993.
Brunig uses Newcomb College scrapbooks to explore the history of
academic and social life for women, 1900-1918. Using a chi-square test,
she compares expected and actual contents of 11 scrapbooks. She also looks
at preservation needs and methods.
Bryant, Marsha. Photo-Textualities: Reading Photographs.
Newark: University of Delaware Press, 1996.
This collection of essays explores the intersection of photographs and
literary language (particularly in selected documentaries, novels, and
hybrid forms of nonfiction), and the implications of such interactions.
Marja Warehime's discussion of photography, time, and the surrealist
sensibility is particularly helpful to an exploration of the compilation
of albums. Stephen Watt's exploration of photographs in biographies
considers the plurality of people (in actuality and from the standpoint of
the same person at different ages) found in albums. Other essays are
helpful in gaining a theoretical grounding in the visual literacy movement
and attempts to deconstruct the camera eye of the photographer.
Buckler, Patricia Prandini. "A Silent Woman Speaks: the Poetry in
a Woman's Scrapbook of the 1840s." Prospects 16(1991): 149-69.
This article discusses poetry contained in the personal memento
scrapbook of Ann Elizabeth Buckler, produced from 1832 to 1855. The
poetry, both written by Buckler and by poets of her time, examines many of
the issues facing antebellum women, including marriage, motherhood,
virtue, religion, and politics. The author comments that the scrapbook
served not only as one of the few ways women could express themselves but
also "as autobiographical testament, recording the life, feelings, ideas
and personality of an individual who would otherwise remain anonymous."
Buckler, Patricia P. and Kay C. Leeper. "An Antebellum Woman's
Scrapbook: An Autobiographical Composition." Journal of American
Culture 14(Spring 1991): 1-8.
This article, also on the scrapbook of Ann Elizabeth Buckler, comments
on the literary as well as the visual artifacts contained in the
scrapbook. The authors also write of Buckler's need for the scrapbook to
assist her in better understanding the complicated issues of her life.
The visual artifacts and non-poetic writings also bring greater attention
to Buckler's more personal concerns for family, friends, and her place in
her community.
Buday, George C. The History of the Christmas Card.
London: Rockliff, 1954; rep 1964, 1992.
Bunkers, Suzanne and Cynthia A. Huff, eds. Inscribing the Daily:
Critical Essays on Women's Diaries. Amherst: University of
Massachusetts Press, 1996.
This compilation of articles will be helpful to those looking at the
scrapbook as autobiography and as a form of the diary. Lynn Bloom's
article on private diaries as public documents, and Judy Temple's article
on fragments are particularly helpful in providing insight into the need to
see personal documents as revisions constrained by society and time, as
well as creator. Helen Buss' use of the new historicism in understanding
private writings also provides a helpful framework for viewing scrapbooks.
Burant, Jim. "More Than a File Cabinet: Scrapbooks as Personal
Expression." Paper presented at the Society of American Archivist Annual
Meeting, 1995.
Arguing that scrapbooks are among the most ubiquitous form of family
record keeping, the author traces the history of scrapbooks through an
exploration of 4 nineteenth century albums in the National Archives of
Canada. The first is that of Lady Faulkand, made during her stay in Nova
Scotia as the wife of the colonial governor; the second is that of
Carolyn Escort, an amateur artist and officer's wife; the third, Lady
Vallow Album, a member of a Quebec family; the fourth, the Thompson album
compiled by a female member of the family of the fourth prime minister of
Canada. Burant discusses sizes, appearances, and contents and notes that
unique views of history are given in these books -- in terms of drawings,
other images, as well as moral instruction. He then likens the scrapbook
to the visual equivalent to the family phone and the video tape made of
family events. His paper provides also insight into the acquisition problems
and solutions (provenance and justification within collection policies).
Burant, Jim. "Record of an Empire, 1835-1896: The John A. Vesey
Kirkland Album." Archivaria 22, Summer 1986: 120-128.
This article provides an account of the provenance and identification
of the John A. Vesey Kirkland Album and Burant's research into the life of
Kirkland through the album and other research. The article also provides
a scholarly look at albums as seen from the viewpoint of archivists.
Canfield, Dorothy, and others. What Shall We Do Now? Five Hundred
Games and Pastimes: A Book of Suggestions for Children's Games and
Employments. New York: Frederick A. Stokes Company, 1907
Written for parents and older children, this book is designed to make
"resourceful" children out of those needing "counsel and hints" concerning
free time. Chapters concern various games -- those for parties, drawing,
writing, picnics, outdoors, train rides, sickbeds, and so forth.
Scrapbook making is considered an excellent activity for building a
spirit of generosity and children are encouraged to make books for
children in the hospital. The enthusiastic language and the references to
various items to include in scrapbooks reflect on the relative rarity of color
printing in the early twentieth century.
Chalfen, Richard. "Introduction to the Study of Non-professional
Photography as Visual Communication" in Saying Cheese: Studies in
Folklore and Visual Communication. Bloomington, Indiana: Folklore
Forum, 1975. pp. 19-25.
This paper provides a description of "home-mode" visual communication,
a medium mostly limited to photographs and home movies made by amateur
photographers. The author argues that "home-mode" visual communication is
a form of expressive behavior valued by small groups of biologically and
socially related people. Chaflen also lists the several events and components
involved in the process of creating visual communication. In so doing,
he touches upon themes that explain the social and personal value of the
photographs contained in scrapbooks.
Challinor, Joan R. "Family Photo Interpretations" in Kin and
Communities. Washington: Smithsonian Institute Press, 1979. pp.
239-63.
This article is a transcript of a symposium about social photography
that was moderated by Challinor. Several scholars discuss still
photography, movies about family relationships, the use of photographs in
teaching community history, and family albums.
Child, Lydia Maria.
An American Frugal Housewife. New York: S&W. Wood, 1845.
Child, Lydia Maria.
The Little Girl's Own Book. New York: Edward Kearney, 1843.
Conservation of Scrapbooks and Albums:
Postrpints of the Book and Paper Group/Photographic Materials Group Joint
Session at the 27th Annual Meeting of the American Institute for
Conservation of Historic and Artistic Works, Juen 11, 1999. St. Louis,
Missouri.Available through the American Institute for Conservation of
Historic and Artistic Works, Washington, D.C., 2000.
Crozier, Ray. "The Unconscious Meaning of Objects" in Manufactured
Pleasures: Psychological Responses to Design. Manchester: Manchester
University Press, 1994. 86-114.
This article examines the psychology of the material world. Drawing
upon Freud, the author concludes that most objects obtain their
significance based upon their implications for the self, a person's
identification with others, and the identity presented to others. A
brief section about color interpretation and insight about other materials
saved by individuals tie this article to an interpretation of scrapbooks.
Csikszentmihaly, Mihaly. "Why We Need Things" in History From
Things. Washington: Smithsonian Institute Press, 1993. pp. 20-28.
This article provides a brief theoretical background for an
understanding of the study of material culture. The author argues that
this "addiction to materialism is in large part due to a paradoxical need
to transform the precariousness of consciousness into the solidity of things."
Culley, Margo, ed. "Introduction." A Day at a Time. New
York: The Feminist Press, 1985. 3-26.
This introduction to a compilation of diary excerpts discusses the
shift in women's diaries around the mid-1800s from day-to-day records of
events to tools for exploring and expressing the self. The author also
discusses other aspects of women's diaries such as their roles as historical
records and literature.
DeCandido, Robert. "Out of the Question."
Conservation Administration News. No. 53, April 1993.
This article traces the history of scrapbooks to the tables, or
commpnplace books of the sixteenth century and looks at the overall
history of scrapbooks. The author discusses 17th century albums of
prints and the work of 18th century William Granger(hence, the term
grangerizing -- the extra-illustrated book of the 19th century). The
focus of the work is on preservation but overall the author presents a
lively telling of both the history and the problems involved in the
conservation of scrapbooks. There is a link on the home page to this
article online.
Drucker, Johannna. The Visible Word: Experimental Typography and
Modern Art, 1909-1923. Chicago, The University of Chicago Press,
1994.
Through a study of typographic experimentation, the author provides an
analysis of art works produced in the 1910s and an inquiry into the
transformation of critical practices in the following decades throughout
the twentieth century. The chapter on semiotics, materiality, and typographic
practice provides many arguments for seeing inventions in printing as
important to artistic and literary endeavors of many sorts. The authority
of language, residing in its capacity to signify, is explored in the works
of linguists and artists. This work might be helpful, especially to those
likening scrapbooks to collages or interpreting albums made from
clippings and other cuttings from printed matter.
Ezell, Margaret J.M. and Katherine O'Brien O'Keeffe. Cultural
Artifacts and the Production of Meaning: The Page, the Image, and the
Body. Ann Arbor, The University of Michigan Press, 1994.
This book considers various ideological constructs of the written word
and an understanding of published works as artifacts. Particularly
helpful to those pondering over the accumulation of various forms of
printing in scrapbooks are chapters dealing with the production of maps
in early modern England, Mark Twain's responses to technology, and Emily
Dickinson's hesitancy about publishing her poems. The latter chapter
might also be helpful to those considering poems included in various
commonplace books and friendship albums.
Fenn, Patricia (and Alfred P. Malpa).
Rewards of Merit: Tokens of a Child's Progress and a Teacher's Esteem as an Enduring Aspect of American Religious and Secular Education. Schoharie, NY: Ephemera Society of America, 1994.
Fleishman, John. "The Labyrinthine World of the Scrapbook King."
Smithsonian 22 (February 1992): 79-87.
This article describes some of the scrapbooks contained in the vast
scrapbook collection of Theodore Langstroth II, the "Scrapbook King." The
scrapbooks cover a variety of subjects, ranging from Japanese prints and
turn-of-the-century opera to chewing tobacco labels and amusement parks.
The article also provides a brief history of scrapbooks.
4-H. Family Folklore: A 4-H Folk Patterns Project. Michigan
State University: Cooperative Extension Service, no date.
This booklet contains activity sheets to guide 4-H'ers and their
family members in the production of written family folklore. Five main
areas are covered: family expressions, family stories, family photography,
family customs, and family keepsakes. The areas covered in this booklet
are similar to those featured in some forms of scrapbooks. A section on
guiding the child to make a "timeline" of his or her life provides
instructions on the need to preserve memories throughout life.
Fritzsche, Peter. Reading Berlin 1900. Cambridge, Harvard
University Press, 1996.
Arguing that "the city as place and the city as text defined each
other," the author focuses on the reading and writing that went on in
Berlin from 1900-1914. The spread of literacy during this period gave
permanent form to memories and other documents about the city. This book
will be helpful to those considering clippings in scrapbooks, particularly
scrapbooks documenting a topic or place. Consideration of the many
newspaper articles on abnormal events -- "the fabricated landscape of the
extraordinary" will be helpful to those considering albums devoted
to medicine and psychology, as well as other subjects.
Freeman, Larry. Louis Prang: Color Lithographer, Giant of a Man. Watkins Glen, NY: Century House, 1971.
Gardner, Saundra. "Exploring the Family Album: Social Class
Differences in Images of Family Life." Sociological Inquiry 61(2),
May 1991: 242-51.
This article compares representations of kin and friendship networks
among middle-class and working class families. The study is based upon
interviews with 20 families from Central Maine about their photo albums.
The study found that in general, middle-class families are more likely
to include photographs of family and friendship networks in their photo
albums than are working class families. Photograph albums of the
middle-class families featured in this study tended to
cover a wider geographic area and broader areas of interest than did
albums of working class families.
Garvey, Ellen. The Adman in the Parlor: Magazines and the
Gendering of Consumer Culture, 1880s to 1910s. New York, Oxford
University Press, 1996.
Garvey traces the history of advertising and the development of a
consumer society in which national goods were sold and increasingly known
by brand names. Her chapter on scrapbooks devoted to trade cards gives
attention to chromolithography, collecting, gender training, and other
aspects within new forms of consumption. She provides illustrations,
discusses theories concerned with collecting, and provides a clear
analysis of the types of consumers who made scrapbooks. Her passages on
the modern department store provide excellent insight into "palaces
of consumption" -- places where one might have purchased scrapbooks, as
well as insight into the enthusiasm of such sections as ladies' lounges,
puppet shows, furniture sections, tea rooms, and so forth. She also
provides a thorough exploration of reading and writing of advertisements.
Garvey, Ellen Gruber. "Scissorizing and Scrapbooks:
Nineteenth-Century Reading, Remaking, and Recirculating, " New Media: 1740-1915,
ed. Lisa Gitelman and Geoff Pingree (cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2003.
Gear, Josephine. "The Baby's Picture: Woman as Image Makers in Small-town America."
Feminist Studies 13(2), Summer 1987: 419-43.
This article discusses the significance of baby pictures and baby
books in the late 19th and early 20th century. Gear argues that such
portraits and compilations served as emblems of women's personal regard
for their status as mothers and reflected their families' treasured
position as a part of America's newly formed middle class. She also looks
at the process of compiling such books and their meaning in terms of
women's lives.
Gernes, Todd Steven. "Recasting the Culture of Ephemera: Young
Women's Literary Culture in Nineteenth Century America." Ph.D., Brown
University, 1992.
This dissertation explores the "ways in which short-lived transitory
objects and materials of everyday life were gathered and reconstituted
into the fabric of social and intellectual life. Poetry, fiction,
recipes, pressed flowers, textiles, and obituaries were clipped,
preserved, and assembled in commonplace books, scrapbooks, and friendship
albums." Gernes argues that the culture of ephemera was an integral part
of the Romantic literary imagination. He looks specifically at
commonplace books, as the ancestors of scrapbooks, and provides helpful
theoretical information on the gendered role of scrapbook keeping in the
nineteenth century.
Gossett, Marilyn. "Make it for Mom." Teen (May 1995): 8,
96-7.
This article provides instructions for making home-made scrapbooks or
"memory books" for mothers as a special and original Mother's day present.
The author also provides useful information about the basic construction
of scrapbooks.
Grossman, John. "Chromolithography and the Cigar Label: Sometimes the Label was Better Than the Cigar" Ephemera Journal, Volume IX.
Gurley, E. W.Scrap-Books and How to Make Them. New York:
The Author's Publishing Company, 1880.
This little booklet praises the scrapbook as one of the most useful
inventions of the nineteenth century -- a medium around which one could
improve oneself and one's family. Gurley maintains that Jefferson and
other notables kept scrapbooks and "every man in his own department should
do likewise."
Hart, Cynthia and John Grossman. A Victorian Scrapbook. New
York: Workman Publishing, 1989.
This book contains an introduction to the history of scraps and many
photographs of scraps themselves. The process of chromolithography, "as
invented in Bavaria (1798)," and a general explanation of various overlays
of color also are briefly discussed.
Hart, Janice. "The Family Treasure:
Productive and Interpretative Aspects of the Mid-to Late
Victorian Album," The Photographic Collector 5 (1984).
Heller, Martin, Hrsg. Welt-Geschichten.
Fotoalben aus der Sammlung Herzog, Zürich: Limmat Verlag Genossenschaft,
1989.
Higonnet, Anne. Berte Morisot's
Images of Women. Cambridge, MA: London, England:
Harvard University Press, 1994.
Chapter 3, "Amateur Pictures: Images
and Practices," discusses activities deemed appropriate for the education
of the young in nineteenth century France, especially for amateur
women artists. Among these are included picture books or
keepsake albums that women assembled. Chapter 5, "Feminine Visual
Reproduction in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction," offers a look at
the ways in which the invention of photgraphy and other means of
mechanical reproduction affected women [amateur] artists, both
in their art and in the keepsake albums some of them kept.
Hirsch, Marianne. Family Frames:
Photography, Narrative and Post Memory. Cambridge,
Harvard University Press, 1997.
Horton, Richard W. "Photo Album Structures, 1850-1960." Guild of
Book Workers Journal 32(1), Spring, 1994: 32-43.
Horton studied the structures and mounting methods of some 394 albums in
the Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center at the University of Texas.
He categorizes his findings into six groupings: stubbed book (1850-1860),
stiff-paged album (1860-1900), carte de visite album (1850s-1900),
snapshot album (1890-1920), slit-mounting post card albums (1900-1920), and
laced scrapbook, (1920-1950). His study is most helpful to those wishing
to know more about the types of album available to scrapbook makers.
Impey, Oliver and Arthur MacGregor. The Origins of Museums: The
Cabinet of Curiosities in Sixteen- and Seventeenth-Century Europe.
Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1985.
This book of collected essays by curators and scholars from various
preeminent museums and libraries gives historical and theoretical insight
into the collecting -- of artifacts, paintings, and other materials. This
is also a wonderful book for daydreaming and for pondering over the more
modest album and the provenance and organization of artifacts in general.
Jackson, James C.
Training of Children, or, How to Have Them Healthy, Handsome, and Happy. Dansville, NY: Austin, Jackson & Co, 1872.
Jay, Robert. The Trade Card in Nineteenth-Century America.
Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 1987.
Jelenik, Estelle C. The Tradition of Women's Autobiography: From
Antiquity to the Present. Boston: Twayne Publishers, 1986.
In discussing autobiographies of several different historical periods,
Jelenik provides insights into various reasons for compiling personal
documents.
Johnson, Katherine. "Interpreting Performance Through a Scrapbook's
Eye View." Paper presented at the Society of American Archivist Annual
Meeting, 1995.
Noting that albums and scrapbooks have been a critical source for the
study of theatrical history, Johnson notes that any performing arts
collection will hold a wealth of scrapbooks -- from 100 or so in the
National Archives of Canada to many thousands in either the Harvard Theatre
collection or the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts. She
dates such scrapbooks to 1730, if not earlier, despite the 1859 date given
by the OED. She looks at scrapbooks documenting particular theatrical
phenomenon such as "The Beggar's Opera" and the Ballets Russes; scrapbooks
compiled to perfect the art of compilation; scrapbooks compiled by men and
women of the theatre; scrapbooks to preserve similar types of materials
(photographs, playbills, drawings of the theatre); and scrapbooks compiled
by the theatre-goer or fan. She also notes the problems of conducting
research through scrapbooks, notably those centered around authenticity
of the compilers and incompleteness in compiling.
Katriel, Tamar and Thomas Farrell.
"Scrapbooks as Cultural Texts: An American Art of Memory."
Text and Performance Quarterly 11:1 (January 1991) 1-17.
Kinneavy, James L. A Theory of Discourse. Englewood Cliffs:
Prentice-Hall, 1971.
Kinneavy defines different approaches to teaching composition, and in
so doing provides insight into some of the moral instruction being taught
in scrapbook making in the nineteenth century. He begins with an
historical view, and then addresses persuasive, literary, and expressive
forms of discourse. Several of his insight concerned with early twentieth
century methods touch upon the context in which scrapbooks became a
popular hobby.
Kotkin, Amy. "The Family Photo Albums as a Form of Folklore."
Exposure 16(1978): 4-8.
This article discusses the role of family photo albums in family
folklore. Based upon research with Washington, D.C. area residents, the
author concludes that family photo albums have come to serve as a basis
for family legends and folklore in many instances.
Kuhn, Annette. Family Secrets: Acts of Memory and Imagination.
London: Verso, 1995.
Kuhn uses photography as the locus of memory, the pre-text, for an
analysis of her own life as represented in photos taken by her parents.
She also uses photographs of the coronation of Queen Elizabeth and
visiting Queen Salote of Tonga, comparing imperialist visions of empire and
conquest within the context of her life and her parents' expectations.
Kuipers, Juliana. "Scrapbooks: Intrinsic Value
and Material Culture," Journal of Archival Organization Volume 2 Number
3 2004: 83-91.
Scrapbooks present a particularly challenging set of preservation issues to archivists. However, as an intriguing combination of diaries, photograph albums, and ephemera, their format and arrangement are an essential part of their usefulness as sources to researchers. The fascinating link between scrapbooks and quilts, evident in a brief history of scrapbooks and an exploration of several types, indicates that scrapbooks are a particularly rich source for researchers interested in women's history. In order to facilitate the richest understanding of these unique and fascinating sources, material literacy should be increased among both archivists and researchers. In particular, archivists should understand the important function these records have to researchers, and how their storage and preservation choices affect that function.
Langford, Martha. Suspended Conversations:
The Afterlife of Memory in Photographic Albums. Montreal: McGill-Queen's
University Press, 2001.
Lavin, Maud. Chapter 3, "Hannah Höch's mass
medi scrapbook: utopias of the twenties," in Cut with the Kitchen Knife:
the Weimar phtomontages of Hanna Hoch. New Hanven; London: Yale
University Press, 1993.
Leary, James P. "Folklore and Photography in a Male Group" in
Saying Cheese: Studies in Folklore and Visual Communication.
Bloomington, Indiana: Folklore Forum, 1975. pp. 45-9.
This paper focuses on a group of men as they review photographs and
describe the memories the photographs elicit. Longtime friends,
they
recall weekend parties, graduation, and other social events. The author
writes that these photos are an essential part of reunions, a help in
recreating the closeness they felt while they were in college.
Lensing, Leo A. "Literature and Photography:
Practical and Theoretical Observations on their Interaction in Modern
Vienna." Intertextuality: German Literature and Visual Art from
the Renaissance to the Twentieth Century. Ed. Ingeborg Hoesterey
and Ulrich Weisstein. Columbia, SC: Camden House, 1993: 159-187.
Lensing, Leo A. "Peter Altenberg's
'beschriebene' Fotografien: Ein zweites Oeuvre?"
In Fotogeschichte Vol 15, No. 57, 1995: 3-33.
Revised, enlarged version of "Peter Altenberg's Fabricated Photographs."
Lensing, Leo A. "Peter Altenberg's
'Inscribed' Photographs and Picture-Postcard Albums,"
A text of a presentation excerpted from Lensing's two
articles on Altenberg's photographs [Lensing 1990 and 1995] and
chapters 4 and 5 in the book Peter Altenberg: Rezept die
Welt zu sehen (1995).
Lensing, Leo A. "Peter Altenberg's
Fabricated Phtographs: Literature and Photography in
Fin-de-SiècleVienna." Austrian Studies I (1990): 47-72.
Leonard, Thomas C. News for All: America's Coming-of-Age with the
Press. New York, Oxford University Press, 1995.
"Nearly three centuries ago, Americans began to read news in print.
This book is about that part of national life." So begins, the author in
his history of print journalism in the U.S. Sections deal with readers,
workers and influence, and democracy. For those interested in the use of
scrapbooks as repositories for newspaper clippings, the chapter on the
scrapbooks of abolitionists will prove immediately helpful; other chapters
provide additionally helpful historical background.
Lesy, Michael. "Fame and Fortune : A Snapshot Chronicle."
Afterimage October 1977: 8-13.
Giving brief biographies, descriptions of collections (scrapbooks and
albums), and interpreted patterns, Lesy writes of a series of interviews
with a divorced couple. He also discusses his work with film -- as
historian and earlier, as someone who often visited a big commercial photo
processing plant. His humorous and perceptive insights are given in
short comments about how our modern world is configured around images of
self and the reproduction of these images.
Lesy, Michael. Time Frames: The Meaning of Family Pictures.
New York: Pantheon Books, 1980.
This is a study of family albums and the stories that go along with
them. Lesy finds that three types of photographs dominate in albums --
those of love, intimacy and family life; those of war; and those of work.
He also notes gendered differences in poses.
Lesy, Michael. Bearing Witness: A Photographic Chronicle of
American Life, 1860-1945. New York: Pantheon, 1982.
Though mainly covering 167 pages of images, this book also provides
insight into late nineteenth and early twentieth century thoughts on
access and retrieval of photographs. Persons interested in the use of
scrapbooks to house a visual and/or printed file concerned with a
particular field, or those interested in the history of libraries and
archives will find Lesy's remarks interesting.
Library of Congress, National Preservation Program Office.
"Preservation Basics: Preservation of Scrapbooks and Albums."
(Washington, D.C., 1991)
This leaflet, available both in hard copy and online, provides a very
brief history of scrapbooks and albums. Other sections deal with
accession and disposition, collection policy guidelines, environment,
physical storage and shelving, handling, treatment, and reformatting.
Suppliers for preservation materials also are listed.
Lloyd, Ernest, ed.
Scrapbook stories: from Ellen G. White's scrapbooks.
Mountain View, CA: Pacific Press Pub. Association, 1949.
Loeb, Lori Anne. Consuming Angels: Advertising and Victorian
Women. New York, Oxford University Press, 1994.
Loeb explores the domestic ideology of the Victorian era as one of
containment, leisure, and consumption. By noting the ideals of progress
formulated through Victorian advertising, Loeb maps the moral implications
of the commercial models of adventurer, queen, actress, and expert. Loeb
also addresses related issues of anxiety and community. Finally, Loeb
employs a political lens to explore both elite and democratizing material
consumption.
Lyons, Joan. Artists' Books: A Critical Anthology and
Sourcebook. Layton, Utah: Peregrine Smith Books, 1985.
This volume is an anthology of writings on artists and their work on
that "venerable container of the written word" -- the book. Essays by
Richard Kostelanetz, Lucy Lippard, and others discuss artists' book in the
period 1960-1980. The chapter by Shelley Rice on artists' books as
visual literature looks at many of the same issues confronted by those
studying scrapbooks, notably the interpretation of the juxtaposition of
words and images on a page. Many of her examples look like modern day
scrapbooks. Also helpful are a listing of artists' book collections
in the U.S. and a bibliography.
MacKay, James. Childhood Antiques. New York: Taplinger Publishing Company, 1976.
Makepeace, Chris E. Ephemera: A Book on its Collection,
Conservation, and Use. Brookfield, Vermont: Gower, 1985.
This book looks at various problems in defining, collecting, and
storing different types of
ephemera. While not dealing (except quite briefly) with scrapbooks as
the repository of much ephemera, the book provides an inside look at how
librarians view, use, promote, and deal with many types of ephemera.
Making great scrapbooks: it's
easier than you think Canby, OR: Hot Off the Press, 1998.
Marsh, Alec. “Thaddeus Coleman Pound’s ‘Newspaper Scrapbook’ as a
Source for The Cantos,” Paideuma24, nos. 2/3 (fall/winter 1995):
16393.
Marsh describes the scrapbook of Pound’s paternal grandfather
as consisting almost exclusively of public documents such as newspaper
clippings, published poems, and letters to the editors of various
newspapers.
Marzio, Peter C. The Democratic Art: Pictures for a Nineteenth
Century America, Chromolithography, 1840-1900. Godine, 1979.
This book is an excellent and thorough exploration of the process that
made colored printing a part of everyday life. Also helpful in
discovering what types of materials were available during different
periods of the past, the book is one of the few focused sources on
colored printing and visual culture.
Matthews, Samantha. Psychological Crystal Palace? Late Victorian
Confession Albums. Book History 3 (2000) 125-154.
McClinton, Katherine Morrison. The Chromolithographs of Louis Prang.
New York: Clarkson N. Potter, 1973.
Motz, Marilyn. "Visual Autobiography: Photograph Albums of
Turn-of-the-Century Midwestern Women." American Quarterly 41(March
1989): 63-92.
The author explores the development of the photographic technology
that facilitated the creation of family albums She briefly compares these
albums of the 1890s, with earlier ones of professional produced images.
In studying eight specific albums, she shows how women altered
conventional poses, settings, and clothing to give an individualistic
view of themselves within and without of expected societal conventions.
Nash, Maude Cushing. Children's Occupations. Boston: Houghton
Mifflin Company, 1920.
"Having once acquired the art of cutting, the fascination never ceases
even to all ages." So begins the chapter, "The Scrapbook" in which the
author presents information on the handmade construction of such albums
and its completion with printed colored pictures. The book is
helpful for interpreting how children were trained in various past time
activities.
Newell, Maxine. "The Scrapbook."
Canyon Legacy, 1992, (14): 12-19.
Ockenga, Starr. On Women and Friendship: A Collection of
Victorian Keepsakes and Traditions. New York: Stewart, Tabori, and
Chang, 1993.
An oversized and heavily illustrated book, this volume explores
friendship, devoting considerable attention to the practice among friends
of writing in albums and of gathering memorabilia of many sorts. The
various types of early nineteenth century albums and gifts books are
traced to their German ancestors -- the stammbucher or freund buch. Also
helpful is a discussion of printing techniques that gave rise to scraps,
gift books, and various types of ephemeral material.
Ohrn, Karin Becker. "The Photo Flow of Family Life: A Family
Photograph" in Saying Cheese: Studies in Folklore and Visual
Communication. Bloomington, Indiana: Folklore Forum, 1975. pp.
27-35.
This paper reports on how photographs are used in one family to pass
on and preserve family heritage. Using the family's photographs, which
span a 60-year period, and interviews with three generations of women from
the family, the author constructs a history of the family guided by
memories. The author writes that this family's photograph collection
served as an "archive" of their life--a way of remembering people and
events, and also a way of passing on and preserving memories for other
members of the family.
Ott, Katherine. "Using Scrapbooks to Interpret the Graphic History
of Nineteenth Century Life." Paper presented at the Society of American
Archivists Meeting, Washington D.C., 1995.
Ott explores the genealogy of the scrapbook in the commonplace book
and the Victorian curiosity cabinet. She notes that various nineteenth
century newspapers and magazines ran regular features specifically for
scrapbook cutting; she also discusses design and binding problems in
scrapbooks and their marketing. She then discusses specific scrapbooks
of medical practitioners and their uses as repositories of learning, a
means to manipulate items and space.
Ott, Katherine. "It's a Scrapbook Life: Using Ephemera to
Reconstruct the Everyday of Medical Practice." The Water Mark,
Newsletter of the Archivists and Librarians in the History of the Health
Sciences 22(1), Winter 1996:1-7.
The author argues that the study of ephemera provides an important way
to recreate the actual "as opposed to the reported, experience of
nineteenth century people." Studying scrapbooks devoted to science and
medicine, she provides examples illustrating how science and medicine
became "domesticated" and popularized for a mass audience. She makes a
strong argument for locating the scrapbook "at the intersection of the
book, the old cabinet of curiosity, the modern exhibit case, folk art,
collage, and even home video." She also looks at trends in the paper and
printing industries and how these trends impacted the use of scrapbooks.
She then looks at specific scrapbooks of physicians in the northeast.
Packham, Jo. Moments to remember:
tips, techniques, and 30 special album ideas for creating memories
that last a lifetime. New York: Dell, 1998.
Peters, Harry T. America On Stone.
New York: Doubleday, Doran, 1931.
Rickards, Maurice. Collected Printed Ephemera. New York,
Abbeville, 1988.
This book discusses printed ephemera of all sorts and is an excellent
introduction to its history and collection, mostly in England and North
America. A bibliography and a glossary provide other information.
Rickards, Maurice. The encyclopedia of ephemera : a guide to the
fragmentary documents of
everyday life for the collector, curator, and historian.
Edited and completed by Michael Twyman, with the
assistance of Sally de Beaumont and Amoret Tanner.
New York: Routledge, 2000.
Ruth, Amy. "Victorian Scraps." Antiques and Collecting
Magazine. 99(February 1995): 38-9.
This article discusses the collection of Victorian scraps during
present times. The author writes that the collection of these items has
become quite popular. Many collected scraps are authentic while others
are reproductions made after the Victorian era. The author also provides
historical information about scrap collection.
Ruutz-Rees, Janet E. Home Occupations. New York: D. Appleton
and Company, 1883.
In this book, chapters give instruction on work with leather, tissue
paper, flowers, wax cardboard, beads and other items. The chapter devoted
to making scrapbooks provides six pages on various types of construction.
Especially interesting is the inclusion of instructions on making inset
books -- that is, the purchase of books with wide enough margins to allow
one to insert images one chooses from other publications and photographs.
The author discusses the value of these books, and the need to be modest
in one's goals.
Rybczynski, Witold. "A Homemade House" in Looking Around: A
Journey Through Architecture. Toronto: Harper Collins Publisher,
1992. pp. 172-80.
This essay describes the home of artist Carl Larsson, constructed in
1889 in central Sweden. Larsson and his wife Karin, both painters,
published several books about their home and family which the author
describes as "souvenir albums that document (in paintings) not the family but
the house." He mentions that such books on one's own domestic
architecture were common in the 1880s and 1890s.
Seddon, Laura. A Gallery of Greetings.
Manchester: Manchester Polytechnic Library, 1992.
Shapiro, Rina and Hanna Herzog,
"Understanding Youth Culture Through Autograph Books: The Israeli
Case." Journal of American Folklore, 97: 386 (1984), 442-460.
Shaw. G. Bernard. My Expensive Scrap Book. East Aurora: New
York, The Roycrofters, 1915.
In this nineteen-page advertisement for Hemstreet Clipping Bureau,
Shaw describes his first trip to arrange for a scrapbook to be made. He
describes the street, and the building of the agency. He notes that the
value of using such an agency is found not only in having clippings about
oneself or one's favorite subject but also in using these clippings to
establish oneself as a credible witness in law proceedings or as a learned
person in other respects.
Siegel, Elizabeth E., "Galleries of Friendship and Fame: The History
of Nineteenth-Century American Family Albums" (PhD diss., University of
Chicago, 2003).
Smith, Deborah. "Consuming Passions: Scrapbooks and American Play."
Ephemera Journal 6(1993): 63-76.
Smith places the construction of the scrapbook in the context of
Victorian collecting, using the lens of consumer habits to address the
proliferation of printed advertisements such as color trade cards. She
examines the culture of the Victorian commercial expositions, noting
fluctuations in income and psychological issues of consumption. She also
compares the physical act of scrapbook construction to women's needlework.
Sobieszeck, Robert. "Composite Imagery
and the Origins of Photomontage, Part I: The Naturalistic Strain."
Artforum 17, no. 2 (1978): 58-65; "Part 2: The Formalist Strain."
Artforum 17, no. 3 (1978): 40-45.
Spence, Jo and Patricia Holland,
eds. Family Snaps: The Meanings of Domestic Photography.
London, Virago, 1991.
Stabile, Susan M. Memory’s daughters : the material culture of remembrance in
eighteenth-century America. 1st ed. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2004.
Staff, Frank. The Picture Postcard and Its
Origins. 2nd ed. London: Lutterworth, 1979.
Stein, Sally. "The Composite Photographic
Image and the Composition of Consumer Ideology." Art Journal 41,
no. 1 (Spring 1981): 39-45.
Stevenson, Robert P. "The
Autograph Album: A Victorian Girl's Best Friend"
Philadelphia Folklife 34, No. 1 (Autumn 1984) 34-43
Stewart, Susan. On Longing: Narratives of the Miniature, the
Gigantic, the Souvenir, the Collection. Durham, Duke University
Press, 1993.
In examining the relations of narrative to origin and object, Steward
explores nostalgia. Among objects of desire, she classifies the scrapbook
and the memory quilt as souvenirs rather than as collections. "While the
point of the souvenir may be remembering, or at least the invention of
memory, the point of the collection is forgetting -- starting again in
such a way that a finite number of elements create, by virtue of their
combination, an infinite reverie." Passages that might be helpful to
those interested in scrapbooks concern tableaux, dollhouses, as well as the
Tom Thumb wedding and female impersonator.
Tajiri, Vincent, ed. Through Innocent Eyes: Writings and Art from the Japanese American Internment. Contributors: Yuji Ichioka, Lane Hirabayashi, and Lucille Reed Franchi. Los Angeles, CA: Keiro Services Press and the Generations Fund, 1990.
Taylor, Laurie. "Camera Obscura." New Statesman and Society
6, August 1993: 21.
This article creatively discusses the author's feelings that
photographs inadequately record special events. Instead, the author
suggests that camcorders should be used to record these events because
they can record an entire event instead of just one moment, presenting a
more complete and accurate picture of the occasion.
"The Great Family of Man." Mythologies. 1957. Selected and trans.
Annette Lavers. New York: Noonday Press, 1972. 100-02
Thomas, Sari. "Artificial Study in the Analysis of Culture."
Communication Research 12(6), December 1994: 683-97
This article argues for the study of artifacts in cultural inquiry and
for the content analysis of artifacts such as television shows, movies,
and books. The author feels that artifactual analysis should supplement
behavioral research in order to make inferences about behavior.
Titus, Sandra. "Family Photographs and Transition to Parenthood."
Journal of Marriage and the Family. 38(3), August 1976: 524-30.
This article examines the role of photographs in recording the
transition from childlessness to parenthood. A comparison of photos of
the first child and second child is also featured (with the
first child appearing to be most often photographed).
Tucker, Susan. “Reading and Re-reading: The
Scrapbooks of Girls Growing into Women, 1900<n>1940,” in Defining Print
Culture for Youth: The Cultural Work of Children’s Literature, eds. Anne Lundin
and Wayne Wiegand. (Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2003).
Tucker, Susan. "Within a Scrapbooks' Pages." Historic New Orleans Collection
Quarterly 15(1), Winter 1997:6-7.
This article considers briefly the history of scrapbooks, and focuses
on the 1908 scrapbook of Alice Monroe, a Newcomb College student. Tucker
explores the practice among college women of keeping scrapbooks, and notes
societal approval of scrapbook- making as an acceptable form of activity
that would anchor young women to traditional values as caregivers and memory
holders.
Taylor, Laurie. "Camera Obscura." New Statesman and Society
6, August 1993: 21.
Twyman, Michael. Printing 1770-1970: An Illustrated History of its Development and Uses In England
London: Eyre & Spottiswoode, 1970; rep London: The British Library; New Castle DE: Oak Knoll Press, 1998.
University of Delaware, Library.
Self Works: diaries, scrapbooks, and other autobiographical efforts:
catalog of an exhibition, August19, 1997-December 18, 1997.
Guide to selected sources. Newark, DE: Special Collections, Hugh M.
Morris Library, University of Delaware Library, 1997.
Vanessa-Ann. Making scrapbooks: complete
guide to preserving your treasured memories. New York: Sterling
Pub. Co., 1998.
Vosmeier,Sarah McNair, "The Family Album: Photography and Family life,
1860-1930" (PhD diss., Indiana University, 2003).
Waldman, Diane. Collage, Assemblage, and The Found Object.
London, Phaidon Press, 1992.
This illustrated book traces the history of collage, with roots in
such diverse art as stained glass and quilts. An index and notes will be
helpful in a search for the influence of assemblage on scrapbooks.
Weiss, Harvey. How to make your own books.
New York: Crowell, 1974.
Whalen, Catherine. "Finding Me." Afterimage 29, no. 6 [Special Issue:
Vernacular Photography] (May/June 2002): 16-17.
Abbreviated version of larger, ongoing project.
Whalen, Catherine. "'Finding Me': A Young Woman's Scrapbook as Visual
Autobiography and Site of Identity Formation in 1920s Detroit."
Paper
presented at the American Studies Association Annual Meeting, Detroit,
Michigan, October 12-15, 2000, for the session "Visions and Revisions:
Photography and the Making of Meaning," chaired by Mark Rice. The term
"visual autobiography" references Marilyn Motz's work.
Williams, Val. The Other Observers: Woman Photographers in Britain,
1900 to the Present. 1986. London: Virago Press, 1991.
Willis, Deborah, ed. Picturing
Us: African American Identity in Photography.
N.Y., The New Press, 1994.
Witty, Paul A. "Sex Differences: Collecting Interests." Journal of
Educational Psychology 22:221-8, 1931.
Wood, Robert. Victorian Delights.
London: Evans Brothers, 1967.
An account of the printed work of J. Proctor in Hartlepool in the middle of the 19th century.
Zachary, Shannon. See Conservation of
Scrapbooks and Albums.
Zietlin, Steven, Amy Kotkin, and Holly Cutting Baker. "Family Albums"
in a Celebration of Family Folklore. New York: Pantheon Books,
1982. pp. 192-199.
This article discusses the role of family photo albums in recording
phases of individual lives within a familial context. The author writes
that these albums usually only contain photographs of positive occasions
and landmark events, like births or graduations. These photographs often
serve as a catalyst to story telling and provide a way of initiating new
friends or family members.
Zola, Meguido. "By Hook or By Crook:
a New Look at the Autograph Book," N. Y. Folklore 6.
Nos 3-4 (Winter 1980), 185-194.
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