In 1834, Sarah Tuttle started a scrapbook which she seems to have kept
until the 1860s; the date “February 12, 1834” is handwritten on the fly leaf
and at least one other place in the book, and a pasted-in obituary is dated
1863. In her book, Sarah pasted poems, humorous stories, and pictures
from various sources; she also recorded information on medicines. I’m
not sure who Sarah was; I bought her scrapbook at a family auction in
Missouri.
Unfortunately, I can’t provide many scans from the scrapbook, but I’d
like to record here some of what she collected.
Images from Sarah’s scrapbook are featured in a
wallpaper for your desktop.
A little gallery of original paintings
Two yellow birds
These bird pictures in the spirit of John James Audubon appear to have been inspired
by the color yellow: the perky “yelow hammer” may be named for the
yellowhammer (Colaptes auratus), which it doesn’t resemble; the
“yellow Robbin” appears to be wholly imaginary.
Still life from two angles
Detailed and subtly shaded, this watercolor of fruit resembles the
genteel paintings schoolgirls were expected to produce. It is, however,
pasted upside down in the scrapbook. It looks just as good right side up: