Scrapbooks: An American History

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Yale University Press, New Haven, CT, 2008, English

Nonfiction, Graphic Design

ISBN: 9780300126358

From the Publisher. 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 and rich in emotional content, the scrapbook is a unique and often quirky form of expression in which a person gathers Jessica Helfand, a graphic designer and scrapbook collector, examines the evolution of scrapbooks from the beginning of the 19th century to the present, concentrating on the first half of the 20th 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.

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