William Thorndike kept this small scrapbook for his son Charles who was born in 1914. Overtime, William kept scrapbooks for all of his children, Sarah, Charles, and Townsend. He wrote down the funny things Charles said and kept various drawings and …

William Thorndike kept this small scrapbook for his son Charles who was born in 1914. Overtime, William kept scrapbooks for all of his children, Sarah, Charles, and Townsend. He wrote down the funny things Charles said and kept various drawings and photos. Charles went on to marry Barbara Annalee Davis, who founded Annalee Dolls in the 1950s.

Paper of the Past is a public archive managed by Mandy Ross, a young woman who collects old scrapbooks made between the years 1850 - 1930. She is a University lecturer, and story hunter who resides in the Bay Area

 
 

Child’s scrapbook from Illinois, circa 1910. There are no names inside.

1915 scrapbook created by Edwin Hirschfelder as he attended Lowell High School in San Francisco, California.

 
 
 

A scrapbook created by Charles Hamilton Barrows in 1865. It contains sketches, transcribed business letters, and newspaper clippings.

This scrapbook does not have any names inside, but it appears it is from the 1930s.

 
 
 

English scrapbook containing items from the 1860s and 1870s, but there are no names inside. On the image to the left, a page reads, “A book cover formed by Martin’s ceramic paper-mache process.” It likely came from an issue of the Illustrated London News.

 
 
 
 

An inscription in this book reads, “For Brenda. These are original pictures drawn ‘free hand’ by Melvin (Grandpa) Johnson at the age of 13 years. The wood cover he made when about 11 or 12 years.” Sadly, no other identifying information is included and there are about 7 pencil sketches of horses in the scrapbook.

 
 

This scrapbook was made by a woman in Kentucky in the 1910s using a repurposed tailoring catalog from the 1890s.

 
 

The following images are archived from seven scrapbooks made by Dorothy Malones, from 1920 - 1930’s, in Ohio. They chronicle her time as a college student, and up until her marriage. Dorothy included just about anything in her books; from ring boxes and little plastic dolls, to dish rags and old records.