Combining pictures, words, and a wealth of personal ephemera, scrapbook makers preserve on the pages of their books a moment, a day, or a lifetime. Highly subjective, rich in emotional meaning, the scrapbook is a unique and often quirky form of expression in which a person gathers and arranges meaningful materials to create a personal narrative. This richly illustrated book is the first to focus close attention on the history of American scrapbooks — their origins, their makers, their diverse forms, the reasons for their popularity, and their place in American culture.
Jessica Helfand, a graphic designer and scrapbook collector, examines the evolution of scrapbooks from the nineteenth century to the present, concentrating particularly on the first half of the twentieth century. She includes color photographs from more than 200 scrapbooks; some made by private individuals and others by the famous, including: Zelda Fitzgerald, Lillian Hellman, Anne Sexton, Hilda Doolittle and Carl Van Vechten. Scrapbooks, while generally made by amateurs, represent a striking and authoritative form of visual autobiography. Helfand finds when viewed collectively they offer a unique perspective on the changing pulses of American cultural life.
Published with assistance from Furthermore: a program of the J. M. Kaplan Fund.
A Winterhouse Edition. Designed by Winterhouse Studio.
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“How to elevate the “happy homemaker” perception of scrapbooking? Ask an articulate and scholarly (Yale graduate-school teacher and published author) designer to collect, comment on, and illustrate a memorable, thoughtful history of American scrapbooks. With more than 475 graphics, Helfand begins her journey into personal memory books by, first, defining the criteria for selection: beauty, eclecticism, storytelling, celebrity and civilian representation, and U.S.A.-centric. Then using five “complete” scrapbooks, from 1913 to the 1980s, as chapter introductions, the author investigates the principles of time, space, sentiment, nostalgia, and posterity, using not only her showcased items but also interweaving examples and commentary from her overall research: the diary of a Filipino American doctor; the proliferation of preformatted memory books; the very personal tales of Zelda and F. Scott Fitzgerald, Buckminster Fuller, and among other famous and regular Janes and Joes (yes, men did keep these records, too). An excellent foray into the examination of a longtime cultural phenomenon.” Booklist, November 2008
"Scrapbooks: An American History (Yale/Winterhouse), by Jessica Helfand. Scrapbooking may have jumped the shark, in recent years, but visual historian Jessica Helfand, co-principal of the design collaborative Winterhouse and author of an excellent history of volvelles, would have us understand that they have a long and colorful history. She's traveled the country in search of scrapbooks that are beautiful, eclectic, and that tell a good story; scrapbooks, she says, are visual autobiographies. We're treated to excerpts from 200 years' worth of scrapbooks, by well-known Americans like Zelda Fitzgerald, Anne Sexton, and Carl Van Vechten, which is fun. But we're also afforded a glimpse into the life and times of ordinary Americans. What a cool project.” Boston Globe, June 27, 2008
“Scrapbooks are a shared American art form, transcending race and class and gender, fragments of memory that, pasted, taped, and glued into a whole, define the heritage of a family, like a patchwork coat of arms. Jessica Helfand's delightfully charming and informative book is filled with captivating stories about the generations of family members on whose shoulders each of us stands. Pity the family that has no inherited scrap books; pity the reader who does not own this astonishingly delightful book. This is a book that defines our common American heritage, and it is long overdue.” Henry Louis Gates, Jr., Harvard University
“Anyone can make a scrapbook, and it sometimes seems that everyone has. From this most democratic of art forms, Jessica Helfand has created a national self-portrait of remarkable breadth, depth and beauty.” Michael Bierut, Partner, Pentagram
“The history of scrapbooking long predates the recent explosion of interest in this hugely popular hobby. Jessica Helfand uses her subtle curatorial eye and her sharp critical perspective to shed light on this indigenous creative discourse. This book will be an invaluable inspiration to anyone practicing the art of scrapbooking today, as well as to anyone fascinated with American visual history, photography, and popular culture.” Ellen Lupton, Curator, Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum
“WOW: what a cool, gorgeous, entrancing, brilliant, mysterious book! The scrapbook fragments — these beautifully presented time capsules of so many bygone times and places and lives — are deeply fascinating, but the effect of the whole is as moving and sublime as fiction. Scrapbooks: An American History is close to perfect.” Kurt Andersen, Host, PRI Studio 360 and author of Heyday
