Vigo County Historical Society

Historical Treasure Article

Historic Treasure of the Week - February 5, 1984
By Alice S. Fowler
Vigo County Historical Society

Autograph albums were ornate

The autograph album began with the German "Stammbuch" or "Album Amicorum" that had hand-painted coats of arms, autographs and inscriptions in Latin or German, dating back to the 16th and 17th centuries. They are related to the old tourney books in which the participant of a tournament registered his credentials.

The albums were used by students in universities and in travel. Thus, coats of arms were replaced by sketches of scenes and places. In the 17th and 18th centuries German merchants filled their albums with sketches of amusements, feastings, drinking and obscenities, hunting scenes, love ballads, music, rhyming and acrostics. Then the album spread to England.

At the end of the 17th century albums were illustrated with hand-cut or painted silhouettes. They contained handiwork and embellishments such as hand-painted flowers of figures and bits of needlework.

In the late 18th and early 19th century silhouettes and locks of hair ornamented albums. Locks of hair, especially of departed ones, were encased in rings and lockets. Victorians became addicted to hair jewelry. Many autograph books contain a few locks fastened to the page along with a verse.

The books were often handmade of sheets of rough paper and covers of cardboard and wallpaper.

In the 19th century albums increased in popularity, especially around the 1850s until the 1900s. Companies in England and America printed autograph albums. In fact, they were printed in New York as early as the 1820s.

The verses in the earlier 19th century albums were longer and of greater quality and originality. They express the writers' appreciation for the charm, wit, and beauty of the owner of the album as well as serious thoughts of life and death.

Later in the century the verses became much shorter, often being couplets of doggerel rhymes. That suitable verses were available is evident from an advertisement of a book of verses for albums in the May 1881 issue of "St. Nicholas."

Pages of the albums were decorated with colored or black and white lithographs of ocean and land scenes or pen and ink drawings of faces, broken hearts, birds, scrolls, or flowers by the writers of the verses. Rectangular shaped areas like calling cards were arranged in geometrical patterns on a page with a name printed or written within.

A favorite decoration was the use of heavy colored paper seals bearing such messages as"Affection," "Friendship's Offering," and "Truly Thine."

The album which is this week's historical treasure is the oldest one in the collection at the Historical Museum of the Wabash Valley. It measures 7" by 6'.

It was owned by Josephine Deputy, age 22, of Madelia, Minn. The pages are white, blue, yellow and pink with gilt edges. The illustrations are lithographs as well as original pen and ink drawing. The title--"The Token of Love" -- is repeated on the title page with a lovely lithograph of a young girl holding a basket.

Josephine's father, who was born in North Vernon, Ind. penned these lines in her album Sept. 20, 1868:

A dove was sent from Noah's ark
O'er the vast and boundless sea,
And (the) dove returned with flushing wing
With a branch of the olive tree.

Go though like the dove
And obedient be
To the lesson given to thee
And when thou return, be sure and bring
An olive branch to me.

The Historical Museum of the Wabash Valley, 1411 S. South St. is open from 1 to 4 p.m. Sunday through Friday.