Believe it or not, scrapbooking is thought to have originated from a male, in particular, Thomas Jefferson, Mark Twain and President Rutherford B. Hayes. Although their books do not have the look and feel of today’s scrapbooks, they were inspired by much of the same as we are today. For generations, many people have cut articles from newspapers, saved labels, greeting cards and postcards for their books. Scrapbooks were known to be called common-place books, friendship albums, and yes, scrapbooks.

The scrapbooking tradition, although is not known for sure, is thought to have its origins in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. The word scrapbook, first appeared in the late eighteenth century, derived from the brightly coloured paper called ‘scrap’ that filled the albums of that time. Scrap such as product labels and greeting cards could be collected or even purchased from specialty shops carrying albums and scrap for the scrapbook mania of the late nineteenth century.

Many men and women pasted quotes and phrases in albums called, commonplace books. Thomas Jefferson gathered newspaper articles of his presidency for his books in his leather-bound volumes of plain paper. In 1769, William Granger introduced a printed book with extra blank pages so that the owner could personalize it with autographs, letters or illustrations. Early scrapbookers also began adding pages to existing books to mimic the style. Hair, weavings and messages in a type of autograph album dates as far back as the seventeenth century in Germany , while young women in the Victorian era created memory books or visitors albums containing signatures, scrap, cards, hair, handwriting and even photos of family and friends.

From housewives, keeping labels and trade cards to college students documenting their years at school kept scrapbooks. Others, including famous individuals such as Mark Twain reserved Sundays for his hobby where as Jackie ‘O’, when on a voyage through France kept pages of cards and notes in a scrapbook that she sent to her sister. Some books were brilliantly arranged with compilations of cards and memorabilia, while others revealed lives of their families and themselves. As family history experienced a resurgence of interest in the 1970’s due to Alex Haley’s “Roots”, scrapbooks once again became popular.

So, next time you sit down ask yourself, are you a part of scrapbooking history? Look through your ancestors’ books and enjoy retelling your memories and moments in a scrapbook.