Commonplace books are a way to compile knowledge, usually by writing information into books. They have been kept from antiquity, and were kept particularly during the Renaissance and in the nineteenth century. Such books are similar to scrapbooks filled with items of many kinds: notes, proverbs, adages, aphorisms, maxims, quotes, letters, poems, tables of weights and measures, prayers, legal formulas, and recipes.
A commonplace book from the mid-seventeenth century
Zibaldone di pensieri, written by the Italian poet Giacomo Leopardi
Scrapbooking is a method of preserving, presenting, and arranging personal and family history in the form of a book, box, or card. Typical memorabilia include photographs, printed media, and artwork. Scrapbook albums are often decorated and frequently contain extensive journal entries or written descriptions. Scrapbooking started in the United Kingdom in the nineteenth century.
A vintage scrapbook
A page from a Smith College student's scrapbook circa 1906. This page uses drawings, ephemera, and physical objects to represent a day in the life of the student.
An elaborate example of a braided hairlock attached to a page, from the scrapbook of Anne Wagner, kept between 1795 and 1834.
A page from a photograph album circa 1906. The pages and color of this album are made especially for displaying photographs. The album's owner has arranged her photographs in order to represent her college campus and president.
