Monmouth used the cover of the odd crowd-sourced anthology, Heart Throbs: The Old Scrapbook. The editor asked newspaper readers to send in their favorite poems, etc., with the idea that they were tucked away inside scrapbooks. The white-haired scrapbook
Girl stores up scrapbook wisdom: Youth’s Companion 1906.
user is a figure of wisdom, while scrapbook makers are usually shown as young people, storing up wisdom to use later. The talk is Thursday, Nov. 12.
Vertical filing cabinet, c. 1890, from the American Library Association: http://www.ala.org/lhrt/popularresources/lhrtnewsletters/spring2011
Monmouth’s great title for their series on print culture, Ink and Electricity, is a reminder of how our perceptions of media are shaped by the technology of the moment. For 19th century scrapbook makers, scrapbooks were a new technology — as were the 1890s file folders and vertical files, that eventually displaced a swath of newspaper clipping scrapbook making. I’ll be speaking on how 19th century activists repurposed media in their scrapbooks. 6-7:30, Wilson Hall, Room 104. Arrive early for refreshments. Thanks to Kristin Bluemel for arranging this.
