paper of the past
MANDY ROSS COLLECTS HISTORICAL SCRAPBOOKS AND THE STORIES HIDDEN WITHIN.
I’ve been collecting ephemera since I was 15 years old, but my biggest collection is made up of unique scrapbooks created by other people between 1840 and 1940. I found my first one in 2007 while antique shopping with my mum – it was a 1930s scrapbook made with a large wallpaper sample book. Before that, I had no idea they even existed. And now I have around 500 scrapbooks, diaries and letters all up.
Scrapbooking has a long history dating back hundreds of years. Styles evolved over time – for instance, by the 1870s it became popular to collect colourful advertisements made possible by innovations in printing technology. 1890s scrapbooks have advertisements and floral scraps with little pieces of personal information or handwriting. On the other hand, 1930s scrapbooks tend to be packed with personal mementos, photos and handwritten captions.
Scrapbooks could be many things: a creative outlet, a way to preserve memories, a school project or a gift for someone else. Each one has a story made up of what’s inside, what can be discovered with research, and the book’s journey (for example, where the book has been and how it has changed over time due to age). I love starting with one scrapbook and following its story wherever it leads me. I’ll research the person who made it, starting with genealogy websites and online newspaper archives. Sometimes I’ll contact libraries for additional information. Other times, I’ll post the details on Instagram and people from across the world will pitch in and help with the research.
I have one scrapbook that’s filled with 80 letters written by a young woman in Luxembourg City, Luxembourg in the 1940s. In 2017, I travelled to her hometown and visited places she’d mentioned in her letters. I went to her house, sat in a park near her office, and visited the post office she’d mailed her letters from. I had hoped to uncover more clues about her, but I can’t find any information beyond the 1970s. Still, it was a meaningful trip. Scrapbook-inspired travel is my favourite kind of travel.
Most of my scrapbooks are found online, but they show up anywhere vintage items are sold: antique shops, estate sales, paper fairs, etc. Sometimes I’ll find five books in one month, and other times I’ll go three months without buying anything. Often antique scrapbooks are in poor condition, with mould, water damage and bug infestations. I buy many with rips and tears, but I avoid mouldy books. I keep my collection safe by handling it carefully and storing the scrapbooks in boxes or cabinets.
Some of the designs look surprisingly modern, and some are so unique that they still stand out 100 years later. There have been unexpected finds in there as well, including a bar of soap from 1927, a collection of signed cigarettes from 1898, a broken record from 1928 and a baby’s shoe from 1917. My favourite collection contains seven scrapbooks made by Dorothy Malones in the late 1920s. She included layers of the most random items in each book – no one else scrapbooked like she did.
These scrapbooks teach me about creativity, gratitude and connection. Almost every one leads me to fascinating people and projects in our current time. Personally, I’m more of a journal writer than a scrapbooker; however, I started my first one in January 2020, and it turned into a documentation of my pandemic experience. I used to think scrapbooking required lots of expensive materials, but all you really need is a book and some glue.
See more of Mandy’s collection at @paperofthepast.