In an 1880 manual, E. W. Gurley envisions scrapbooking as a pastime that can be enjoyed by everyone—and a pastime with the potential to preserve the “record of us all” (6). Gurley specifically refers to traditional scrapbooks: those made by using “a good brush, paste, [and a] pair of scissors” to attach newspaper clippings and other paper scraps into a book (36). While scrapbooking had a widespread reputation amongst Victorians for being a feminine, trivial, and disorganized activity,1 Gurley attests to its potential benefits for everyone: “Many beautiful, interesting, and useful thoughts come to us through the newspapers, that are never seen in books, where they can be referred to when wanted: When they are gone they are lost” (9).

Although Gurley likely viewed scrapbooking more poetically than most, the pastime was undeniably undertaken by many people, for a variety of reasons. The next three subsections of the exhibit (named after the headings in Gurley’s manual) explore the details of traditional scissors-and-glue scrapbooking.