Call Number:

Item 0042

Repository:

University of Delaware Library Special Collections

Extent:

1 volume (approximately 20 pages)

Language:

English

Preferred Citation:

MSS 0093, Item 0042, The Centennial scrap book, University of Delaware Library, Newark, Delaware.

Date:

1876 (inclusive)

Creator:

Creator unknown

Form:

Printed ephemera, Trade cards (advertising), Prayers, and Watercolors (paintings)

Abstract:

This late nineteenth-century American scrapbook bears the title "The Centennial Scrap Book" and its contents suggest that it may have been made by an adolescent female: scraps and images depict courtship, infants, fashionable ladies, flowers, and religious sentiments. The album features a series of Centennial exhibition cards that show the buildings in Fairmount Park, Philadelphia, that were constructed for the Centennial International Exhibition of 1876. The album also includes prayer cards; die-cut images of flowers, fruit, birds, children, and fashionable ladies; and two fine examples of original artwork.

This American scrapbook was created by an unknown individual, likely a young lady. Souvenir images in this volume originate from the International Exhibition in Philadelphia in 1876. The copyright from a prayer card in this collection also indicates the date of 1876.

Biographical information derived from collection.

This late nineteenth century American scrapbook bears the title "The Centennial Scrap Book" and its contents suggest that it may have been made by an adolescent female: scraps and images depict courtship, infants, fashionable ladies, flowers, and religious sentiments. The album features a series of Centennial exhibition cards that show the buildings in Fairmount Park, Philadelphia, that were constructed for the Centennial International Exhibition of 1876. The album also includes prayer cards; die-cut images of flowers, fruit, birds, children, and fashionable ladies; and two fine examples of original artwork.

The cover of this album, which is fairly good condition, bears the title "The Centennial Scrap Book" in gold letters. A die-cut color image of George Washington is centered on the red cloth cover framed by decorative black embossing in the 1870s Aesthetic style. There are a total of nine souvenir cards printed by M. Burt (Cleveland, Ohio) from the International Exhibition in Philadelphia and one from the same series which depicts Independence Hall and is titled "First U.S. Congress." A souvenir card from Saratoga Lake, likely in Saratoga, New York, depicts a rural scene centered on a large lake with a railroad track.

Other frequent ephemera in this collection are die-cut scraps of flowers, fruit, birds, children, and fashionable ladies. Several of the prayer cards are in neat arrangements with other cards. Among these small arrangements of cards is a trade card for "Mme Demorest's Reliable Patterns Centennial Award." Another prayer card indicates a copyright date of 1876 from "I. Prang & Co., publishers of Prang's American Chromo's, Boston." There are a few sentimental images that depict young adults in romantic settings, suggestive of courtship and devotion.

Original artwork in this scrapbook includes a watercolor botanical illustration of a fuschia painted directly onto an album page and an exquisite mixed media (pen and ink, gouache, watercolor) illustration that depicts a baby bird emerging from an egg shell with a nature scene in the background, also rendered directly onto the album page.