From the Commonplace Book to the Scrapbook

Excerpt of Eliza Schuyler Hamilton's commonplace book. 

Did you know that the first Saturday in May is National Scrapbook Day? Although the term “scrapbook” wasn’t used until the mid to late-1800s, the concept has existed for centuries. Popularized in the 15^th century with the advent of the printing press, people have been using what were called “commonplace books” to compile documents such as recipes, letters, poems, and journal entries. Even as early as the 8^th century, these types of books were used to compile biblical texts, and the concept of these books as a form of personal expression and record keeping developed thereafter.

In 1685, Enlightenment philosopher John Locke wrote a treatise on commonplace books, translated into English in 1706 as A New Method of Making Common-Place-Books. Locke offered insights into how a person could document a wide array of information, including proverbs, speeches, and ideas. By the 18^th century, the commonplace book had cemented its status as a cherished resource for educated women, providing them with a repository for pamphlets, newspaper clippings, and reflections on the world around them.

Within the Schuyler Mansion collections, there is an excerpt of a commonplace book kept by Eliza Hamilton Schuyler (1811-1863), great-granddaughter of Catharine and Philip Schuyler. Entitled “A Common Place book of Winter life,” these pages detail just eight days from January 1^st-8^th of 1855. Three small holes visible on the left-hand side of what is now a single sheet of paper indicate it was once a longer book Eliza kept. How long she kept it, and where the missing pages are, is currently unknown.

The eight surviving entries allow us a glimpse into Eliza’s daily life. Almost every day, she recorded the temperature at exactly 8AM. While she sometimes mentioned activities in her family life, such as taking her children to German school, she mainly focused on nature. Her notes were poetic at times: “soft glowing sunset—streaking the [Hudson] river with broady [sic] bands of red, purple & gold—I take this hour for myself & such to rise” In this case, she was describing the view from her father’s home near Irvington, NY. She wrote that the sunset reminded her of the day she was married. She said that day had been “rainy & dull,” but the “clouds broke—such joy flashed upon me with these brilliant slanting beams, that they have strengthened me ever since—” Her entries provide a beautiful window into her world and memories even over 160 years since she recorded them.

While Eliza’s commonplace book focused on nature and her daily life, so many 19^th century scrapbooks were full of other mementos like tickets, playbills, and magazine clippings. As magazines began to disseminate even more, the art of scrapbooking as we know it today began to develop thanks to Mark Twain patenting a self-pasting scrapbook that would generate over $100,000 in sales. With the photography also becoming more accessible as near the turn of the 20^th century, scrapbooking as opposed to keeping commonplace books became more typical in American homes.

Perhaps as adults, Eliza’s children clipped articles or photos from ladies’ magazines or saved calling cards and playbills. Thanks to each generation’s unique way of keeping mementoes and snippets of their lives as they wanted to remember them, we get a glimpse into a much more personal past.