Catharine Gould Scrapbook: Difference between revisions
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Tucked away in the corners of archives and special collection libraries are a number of old, handmade books that have baffled historians for decades.<ref name="Paper Slips"> Deidre Lynch, "Paper Slips: Album, Archiving, Accident," Studies in Romanticism 57, no. 1 (2018): https://proxy.library.upenn.edu/login?url=https://www.proquest.com/scholarly-journals/paper-slips-album-archiving-accident/docview/2061875748/se-2?accountid=14707.</ref> These books are often hidden under the guise of many names: scrapbooks, albums, commonplace books, blank books. Because these books were never published or circulated in the public sphere, they do not follow the rules and conventions that govern other printed books, providing little information about their production and making it difficult to catalog and understand. At the same time, because of their idiosyncratic nature, these books provide readers with a fascinating glimpse into the inner lives of their makers, offering a snapshot of reading practices of the time. | Tucked away in the corners of archives and special collection libraries are a number of old, handmade books that have baffled historians for decades.<ref name="Paper Slips"> Deidre Lynch, "Paper Slips: Album, Archiving, Accident," Studies in Romanticism 57, no. 1 (2018): https://proxy.library.upenn.edu/login?url=https://www.proquest.com/scholarly-journals/paper-slips-album-archiving-accident/docview/2061875748/se-2?accountid=14707.</ref> These books are often hidden under the guise of many names: scrapbooks, albums, commonplace books, blank books. Because these books were never published or circulated in the public sphere, they do not follow the rules and conventions that govern other printed books, providing little information about their production and making it difficult to catalog and understand. At the same time, because of their idiosyncratic nature, these books provide readers with a fascinating glimpse into the inner lives of their makers, offering a snapshot of reading practices of the time. | ||
== | =="Books of Scraps"== | ||
Beside the unique handiworks in the scrapbook, most pages of the scrapbooks are filled with poems that are foreign to the modern readers. These are not the famous poems that we know from Georgian England; rather, we find an electric mix of charades, enigmas, epigrams, and hymns excerpted from popular, ephemeral publications, few of which are documented in digital repositories. Out of the 100+ poems I studied, I was able to find two publications that match up with clippings in terms of their content, layout, and typeface: Volume 21 of The London Magazine, Or, Gentleman's Monthly Intelligencer, and The Norfolk Ladies Memorandum Book; Or, Fashionable Pocket Repository For the Year 1793. | |||
==heading 3== | ==heading 3== | ||
Revision as of 19:23, 21 April 2022
Introduction
Tucked away in the corners of archives and special collection libraries are a number of old, handmade books that have baffled historians for decades.[1] These books are often hidden under the guise of many names: scrapbooks, albums, commonplace books, blank books. Because these books were never published or circulated in the public sphere, they do not follow the rules and conventions that govern other printed books, providing little information about their production and making it difficult to catalog and understand. At the same time, because of their idiosyncratic nature, these books provide readers with a fascinating glimpse into the inner lives of their makers, offering a snapshot of reading practices of the time.
"Books of Scraps"
Beside the unique handiworks in the scrapbook, most pages of the scrapbooks are filled with poems that are foreign to the modern readers. These are not the famous poems that we know from Georgian England; rather, we find an electric mix of charades, enigmas, epigrams, and hymns excerpted from popular, ephemeral publications, few of which are documented in digital repositories. Out of the 100+ poems I studied, I was able to find two publications that match up with clippings in terms of their content, layout, and typeface: Volume 21 of The London Magazine, Or, Gentleman's Monthly Intelligencer, and The Norfolk Ladies Memorandum Book; Or, Fashionable Pocket Repository For the Year 1793.
heading 3
- ↑ Deidre Lynch, "Paper Slips: Album, Archiving, Accident," Studies in Romanticism 57, no. 1 (2018): https://proxy.library.upenn.edu/login?url=https://www.proquest.com/scholarly-journals/paper-slips-album-archiving-accident/docview/2061875748/se-2?accountid=14707.