Hyde Park Register scrapbook, 1879
1 volume
An unidentified individual, likely from Hyde Park, Massachusetts, repurposed this copy of The Hyde Park Register and Business Directory for 1879 as a scrapbook to depict interior spaces of homes. Many pages feature brightly colored tissue paper used as a backing, with cut-out images of furniture, appliances, and decorative household goods pasted on the page to create domestic scenes. Several pages include interactive elements, such as curtains that can be moved to see through a window or cupboards and appliances with doors that open. The bulk of the images appear to have been cut from magazines or advertisements, but on a few pages the creator also handmade their own elements such as drawn cupboards, stairways cut from paper, curtains made of various papers, picture frames to surround clipped images, and more. The bulk of the scenes depict parlors, sitting rooms, and bedrooms, but others include an office, kitchen, entryways, a school room, a billiards room, a garden or greenhouse, and more. Most scenes do not include occupants, except for one that features a woman sewing and another that has an image of a baby bathing in a tub.
Two names are written in the volume, M. B. Howard and M. B. Elliot, but further research is required to determine if they were former owners of the directory or potential contributors to the scrapbook.