Victorian Autograph Book
“You ask me for something original. I scarcely know where to begin. Why there’s nothing original in me, excepting original sin. Yours very sincerely, Carrie Wells, Sept. 1879”
When I hear the word autograph book, I think about something you might have shoved in Frank Sinatra’s face in the 1970s. Before celebrity selfies, there were autographs.
But the autograph book I’m about to share is actually about a hundred years older. The Victorians used autograph books much as we used yearbooks in the 20th century. Teenagers would pass them around to friends who would sign them and write inscriptions.
Some friends just signed their names, while others wrote long poems and messages about their time together. Some of the signatures are unreadable, and some are incredibly ornate like this brilliant bird drawing.
Whether long or short, I always find these messages so touching. These children are now long dead, but when these books were being written, they had their whole lives ahead of them.
