Victorian scrapbooks and the American middle class
Date
1996
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
University of Delaware
Abstract
Two basic forms of scrapbooks appeared in the nineteenth century; the first type usually consisted of newspaper clippings pasted into old account books or other blank albums, the second usually consisted of colorful printed cards and die-cuts pasted into ornately-bound blank albums sold as scrapbooks. ☐ Research for this thesis involved the examination of dozens of nineteenth-century scrapbooks for several factors, including: approximate age of the compiler; type of binding used, whether plain or ornate, home-made or store-bought; types of scraps saved; approximate dates of compilation; and the apparent function of the scrapbook in its owner's life. Examination of nineteenth-century prescriptive literature revealed popular attitudes towards scrapbooks, particularly after the Civil War. Modern works on the Victorian period helped explain the societal contexts which created the scrapbooks. ☐ Scrapbooks first appeared in the early nineteenth century as a form of commonplace book, responding to a surge in printed matter. Popular for all ages from the 1830s to the 1880s, this form of scrapbook changed after the Civil War, becoming as popular with women as men, and far less with children. Ornate scrapbooks filled with colorful scraps appeared by the early 1870s as a juvenile form of scrapbook, made possible by new printing technologies. Both postbellum forms embraced sentimentalism in protest to industrialism, yet were possible only through that industrialism.