Making Scrapbooks as Gifts

In Victorian times families liked to make presents for each other, like the scrapbook that Trenor (Train) Park received from his Auntie Dodge for Christmas in 1870. First she chose several themes that she thought Train would like. Then Auntie Dodge cut out black-and- white drawings that had been printed in magazines and newspapers, colored them, and pasted them into the book. The first theme she chose is a hunt. It begins with a drawing of a trumpeter on horseback. Next she chose a drawing of dogs chasing a rabbit and a fox. She added two butterflies flying above that she had cut out and colored separately. For another page she cut out a drawing of two men in eighteenth-century costume. She also included a floral theme, as can be seen on a page called The Rose and Tulip. Train probably would have been allowed to look at his scrapbook on Sundays, holidays, or when he was sick..

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