The History Room has a collection of 32 scrap books of newspaper clippings from the late 1870’s through the 1948. Volume 12 -1937 is available on line at our archive site Catalogit-HUB
Volumns 1 through 6 covering the period 1900 through 1932 was indexed by Bob Ingersoll. The index lists persons, events and/or organizations by page for each volume.
Before the digital age of “bookmarks” and “Pinterest boards,” people used scrapbooks to save the ephemeral information that mattered most to them. These are essentially curated “greatest hits” of a specific person’s life or interests, snipped from the daily paper and preserved in a book.
Because they were created by individuals, these scrapbooks vary wildly in focus:
- The Biographical Scrapbook: Focuses on a single person or family. It contains birth announcements, graduation honors, sports box scores, wedding descriptions, and eventually, obituaries.
- The Special Interest (Topic) Book: Compiled by hobbyists or professionals. A “War Scrapbook” might track WWII headlines, while a “Recipe Scrapbook” would be filled with clipped kitchen tips and food advertisements.
- The “Commonplace” Book: A more general collection of poems, funny cartoons (like Little Orphan Annie), or “human interest” stories that the creator found inspiring or entertaining.
Newspaper scrapbooks were a massive trend in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. For historians and genealogists, these books are often more useful than the original newspapers:
- Context of Importance: A scrapbook tells you what a specific person thought was important. If they saved 20 articles about a local bridge being built, that bridge likely had a significant impact on their life.
- Lost Information: Many local newspapers have been lost to fires or floods. Sometimes, the only surviving copy of a specific article exists because someone pasted it into their personal scrapbook.
- Handwritten Marginalia: Creators often wrote notes in the margins—nicknames, corrections to the reporter’s facts, or dates—adding a layer of personal truth to the printed word.
The following Scrap Book Volume Index lists the volume name, a brief description and the year(s) included in the volume.
