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Friendship and Autograph Album collection, 1826-1944 (majority within 1826-1908)

48 volumes

The Clements Library's collection of individual friendship and autograph albums (the ones that are not part of larger bodies of family papers) dates primarily from the second half of the 19th century. The creators of these albums sought out friends, family, schoolmates, public persons, and others to write signatures, sentiments, poetry, extracts from books and serials, personal sentiments, and more. Contributions often emphasize ties of friendship, exhortations to seek love, happiness, or Christian religious salvation. Most of the volumes in this collection were compiled in the Northeast United States and areas in the Midwest, with urban and rural areas represented. The greater number of the albums were kept by young women and the bulk of the signers were also female. Contributors occasionally illustrated pages with calligraphic designs, trompe l'oeil visiting cards, animals, flowers, and themes that had particular significance to their relationship with the keeper of the album. The volumes in this collection are largely decorative blank books adorned with tooled covers, sometimes containing interspersed engravings of religious, literary, historical, and landscape themes. Some include pasted-in photographs, die-cuts, or stickers.

The Clements Library's collection of individual friendship and autograph albums (the ones that are not part of larger bodies of family papers) dates primarily from the second half of the 19th century. The creators of these albums sought out friends, family, schoolmates, public persons, and others to write signatures, sentiments, poetry, extracts from books and serials, personal sentiments, and more. Contributions often emphasize ties of friendship, exhortations to seek love, happiness, or Christian religious salvation. Most of the volumes in this collection were compiled in the Northeast United States and areas in the Midwest, with urban and rural areas represented. The greater number of the albums were kept by young women and the bulk of the signers were also female. At least one volume was kept by an African American man, Lewis G. Mosebay. Contributors occasionally illustrated pages with calligraphic designs, trompe l'oeil visiting cards, animals, flowers, and themes that had particular significance to their relationship with the keeper of the album. The volumes in this collection are largely decorative blank books adorned with tooled covers, sometimes containing interspersed engravings of religious, literary, historical, and landscape themes. Some include pasted-in photographs, die-cuts, or stickers.

Container

John Stevens Cabot Abbott Autograph Book, ; Brunswick, Maine (M-569), 1851-1860

Volume : Abbott 1851-1860
The Abbott autograph book contains notes and autographs from a number of Abbott's acquaintances. Most contributors included short, inspirational quotations or poetry. Of particular interest is a letter from Senator Charles Sumner, dated March 29, 1860, in which Sumner gave his opinion on one of Abbott's recent books. An anonymous illustrator drew a pencil sketch of a man and woman, seen from behind, on the first page of the volume. This volume also has its own separate finding aid, located here: John Stevens Cabot Abbott Autograph Book.
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Autograph Album, [Nineteenth Century?] (M-6031.5)

Box 1: Autograph [19th Century]
The cover of this unused blank book is red, with embossed gold decorations (including the text "Autographs"). The front board bears a circular printed portrait of cupid holding a broken arrow. A grey fabric bow with a gold colored rose bauble is tied around the front cover.
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Emily A. Bellair Autograph Album, ; Detroit, Michigan (M-4574.1), 1861-1878

Volume : Bellair 1861-1878
This volume whose decorative cover bears the title "Wreaths of Friendship," is a blank book with six engraved illustrations. She received the book from W. E. Gentle, who inscribed a two-page letter proclaiming the pair's friendship. Friends and family members contributed autographs and poetry, including several poems dedicated specifically to Emily that explored themes of friendship and parting. Her brother, Albert F. R. Arndt, wrote a poem from Cairo, Illinois, after he had "gone off to the seat of War" ( March 16, 1862). The final page contains a copy of "Auld Lang Syne," as well as several shorter poems that are darker in mood than the other verses. The volume also has its own separate finding aid, located here: Emily A. Bellair Autograph Album.
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Eunice Clapp Bidwell Autograph Album, ; [Hartford, Connecticut?] (M-7601.3), 1844-1846, 1849

Volume : Bidwell 1844-1849
Eunice (Clapp) Bidwell (1823?-1899) kept this album as a young woman before and after her marriage. This blank book includes a printed title page headed "Album," and the publisher was "J. C. Riker, N. York." The page shows a sleeping cupid with a lyre labeled "The Dream" with tableau of persons, animals, and statues in the background. Several contributors to the volume identify their location as Hartford Retreat with one written by Thomas H. Gallaudet, chaplain of the Hartford Retreat for the Insane. Charles Baldwin inscribed a page; he May or May not have been a patient at the Retreat. Many entries have Christian religious themes. One author wrote in the volume the day before Bidwell's marriage on June 9, 1845. Additional printed illustrations include "The Cottage Girl," "Boston, and Bunker Hill," "Saratoga Lake," "The Rigs O'Barley," and "Light House Near Caldwell's Landing (Hudson River)." Three newspaper clippings of poems and a label from a Rose extract container are laid in.
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Jessie M. Bier Autograph Album, ; S.S. Kroonland (M-8054.1), 1902

Volume : Bier 1902
Signatures and entries of fellow passengers and officers collected in printed album, Outward and Homeward Bound. A Journal and Note-Book for Ocean Voyagers (New York: Anson D. F. Randolph & Co., n.d.). Kept during the S.S. Kroonland's maiden voyage from New York to Antwerp. Includes printed text about shipboard practices, poems, maps, and a colored illustration of "Funnels & Flags of the Principal Passenger Steamship Lines Between New York and European Ports." Bulk of entries written in English, but theer is one written in Chinese kanji, as well as others in German, French, and Russian. A "logbook" section notes latitude, longitude, and distance traveled. Several photographs of crew members are pasted into the volume, including the captain H. Doxrud. One entry includes bars of manuscript music for morning, lunch, and dinner calls, and several pen-and-ink drawings of people appear in the volume of people. Notable autographs include the Consul to Geneva, author and artist Marietta M. Andrews, artist J. Knowles Hare, Secretary of War Elihu Root, Assistant Secretary of the Navy Frank W. Hackett. Fifteen items are laid into the front of the volume, including various calling cards, slips of papers with contact information, and a painting of a bride in a wedding dress with a bouquet and veil.
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Ada Billadeau Autograph Album, ; [Cabot, Vermont?] (M-7711.2), 1899-1902

Volume : Billadeau 1899-1902
This blank book has the word "Autographs" embossed on the cover along with several flowers. The cover is separated, revealing padding and waste paper underneath. Includes pen and ink self-portraits of boys and a list of names separated by gender. Features signatures of schoolmates from Cabot, Vermont, and at least one teacher.
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Alice Bixby Autograph Album, ; [Meredith, New Hampshire?] (M-7711.2), 1884-1887

Volume : Bixby 1884-1887
This blank book has blue velvet covers and an illustrated title page with flowers and the word "Autographs." It includes signatures of friends and family predominantly from Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Rhode Island, along with a pen-and-ink drawing of a heron and several die-cut images.
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Joshua Bragg Autograph Album, ; Boston, Massachusetts (M-7209.4), 1875-1879

Volume : Bragg 1875-1879
Joshua Bragg (1865-1936) used this blank book, with an ornate cover title "Autographs", to collect signatures from people in Boston, Chicago, Brooklyn, Mansion House, White Lake, New York, and Dingman's Ferry. The Dingman's Ferry signatures include nicknames. Bragg's volume includes pencil and watercolor illustrations of wildflowers, an owl, a robin, and a view of Lake George from Bolton. Other illustrations are of a souvenir brochure (on a page with signatures from White Lake), a croquet mallet and wicket, a cottage marked "Goodenow's", an evergreen wood frame, and needles with flying insect surrounding P.A. Gifford's signature. Calling card motifs were utilized on multiple pages. Two pages of elaborate pen and ink drawings are caricatures and a domestic scene by Fred S. Roumage, dated 1882. The caricatures include a gangly soldier from the 7th New York Infantry Regiment and a coat of arms bearing geese, tennis rackets, and money, and an asses' head atop it. One is an antisemitic full length portrait of Jewish man holding a watch (possibly a watch seller), with a foreign accented 'quotation.' The domestic scene is in a bedroom, showing a mustachioed man trying to remove a kneeling woman's outer vestments in what appears to be a violent manner. The caption is "This scene above is not so tragic as one might suppose. It merely represented Mr. Smythe helping the lovely Mrs. Smythe to divest herself of her New Jersey." A small hexagonal tintype portrait of a young man is attached to the top of the page.