commonplace books
Subject
Subject Source: Art & Architecture Thesaurus
Scope Note: AAT: Books in which noteworthy literary passages, cogent quotations, poems, comments, recipes, prescriptions, and other miscellaneous document types are written.SAA: n. ~ A personal anthology of aphorisms, short passages from literature, poems, and other notes transcribed into a blank volume to serve the memory or reference of the compiler. Notes: Increasingly rare in the United States after the first quarter of the 20th century.
Found in 85 Collections and/or Records:
Mary M. Russell album
Collection — Box BW 28, Folder: 1 [X032669071]
Identifier: MSS 16509
Content Description
This collection contains a commonplace book of Mary M. Russell. The first entry, signed "Mortimer," and dated Rose Mont, August 7, 1844," is a kind of paean to "The Album" itself. Book includes engraved images, verses, drawings, and handwritten entries with place names, including Virginia, Washington, and Maryland. Laid in hand-lettered piece of music, "We no more," addressed to Miss Mary Russell.
Dates:
1844 - 1860
Sadie commonplace book
Collection — Box 1
Identifier: MSS 16556
Content Description
This collection consists of a commonplace book. It is not clear the provenance but inscribed in the front and back covers is the name Sadie. The album contains 170 pages of content and a few loose clippings. Each page is filled with clippings from magazines and newspapers that focus on women's work, loss, fairy tales, literature, and poetry. The owner hand colored all the illustrations from magazines. Many of the illustrations are of women; some in non-traditional roles. Many articles are...
Dates:
c.1878
Ella Schultz scrapbook
Collection — Folder 1
Identifier: MSS 16696
Content Description
High school memory scrapbook of Ella Schultz of Omaha, Nebraska and Los Angeles, California from 1920 to 1922. There are theater programs, football items, handwitten sentiments, napkins and other mementos and photogaphs assembled by Ella Schultz, in a suede binding titled, "The Girl Graduate Her Own Book." The album is from Commerce High School in Omaha and Los Angeles Polytechnic High School in Los Angeles. Her move from Omaha to Los Angeles is also documented in the album. ...
Dates:
1920 - 1922
Scrapbook 8. Alida Wilson Davison commonplace book
File — Album 8: [Barcode: X032669431]
Scope and Contents
From the Collection:
Scrapbooks, photo albums, correspondence, travel diary, home movies of the Wilson and Davison families. 28 scrapbooks and loose correspondence related to three generations of the family of James Southall Wilson, with much material on the University of Virginia. Persons represented significantly include James Southall Wilson (1880-1963) and Julia Tyler Wilson (1881-1965);Charles Marshall Davison, Jr. (1914-1995) and Alida Wilson Davison (1913-1995); and Katharine "Kit" Stonestreet Davison...
Dates:
1910-1994
Sophia M. Sias album
Collection — Box BW 16, Folder: 1 [X030899240]
Identifier: MSS 16371
Scope and Contents
Sophia M. Sias album, MSS 16371 (1854; 0.03 cubic feet) is a commercially made album with stamp of William H. Fisk's Bookstore & Bindery, No. 4 Methodist Church, Manchester, N.H. Brown leather binding with blind- and gold-stamped cover with floral illustration and words "Boquet Album." One hundred pages of various colors, only about twenty sides used for inscriptions, verse, etc. Includes title page "Boquet Album," with no publication information. Five printed floral plates, which...
Dates:
1854
Ella F. Simons, "A Young Ladies school newspaper written for subscribers"
Collection — Box BW 6, Folder: 1 [X031589277]
Identifier: MSS 16137
Scope and Contents
Ella F. Simons, "A Young Ladies school newspaper written for subscribers"(1859; 0.03 cubic feet) Contains eleven pages of hand written material. Begins with an "edatoreal" about the state of the nation and the mission of the paper, followed by articles with titles such as "Night," "The Poet," "Dear Emily," "A Ride," "Our Wreath," "Composition," "Sniff," and more. All articles are written in the same hand and with the same unique writing voice, leaving one to ponder if she was a scribe or...
Dates:
1859
Stannery Court Library commonplace book
Collection
Identifier: MSS-84-10
Scope and Contents
This commonplace book, written in 1817, contains abstracts from the sixth edition of Charles Fearne's An Essay on the Learning of Contingent Remainders and Executory Devises edited by Charles Butler, and from the third edition of Francis Williams Sanders' An Essay on Uses and Trusts. It is in at least two hands and may have been written over a period of years.The volume came from the Library of the Stannary Court in...
Dates:
1817
Sarah Stoughton commonplace book
Collection — Box BW 47, Folder: 1/1
Identifier: MSS 16714
Content Description
Sarah Stoughton commonplace book filled with hand-written sentiments, poems, and inscriptions, with many signed and dated. There is genealogical information, relating to Reverend Jonathan Edwards of East Windsor, Connecticut, including "John Ellsworth married Anne Edwards daughter of Reverend Timothy Edwards, and sister of Reverend Jonathan Edwards. Their children were John, Frederick, Solomon, and Anne..." Later in the genealogy notes, "Sarah married John, son of Lemeul Stoughton..."...
Dates:
1826 - 1838
Thomas Turner Fauntleroy commonplace book
Collection
Identifier: MSS-92-2
Scope and Contents
This commonplace book of precedents is arranged by subjects and contains citations from English and American sources. Written in more than one hand, apparently over a number of years. The end paper contains a list of law books owned by Fauntleroy on Jaunary 1, 1828.It is likely that Fauntleroy passed this book on to his son, Thomas Turner Fauntleroy Jr., of Winchester, Virginia, who graduated from the University of Virginia School of Law in 1844, and was elected to the Virginia...
Dates:
1827 - 1883
Thruston family commonplace book
Item — Box BW 42, Folder: 1
Identifier: MSS 16427
Scope and Contents Note
The Thruston family commonplace book (1604-1925; 0.03 cubic feet) documents the family history of the Thruston family of Bristol and Virginia, with early records concerning Martin's Hundred, Virginia, a plantation on the north shore of the James River, first settled in 1638. The manuscript opens with an "Epistle dedicatory" dated 25 October 1628 by Abell Louering, addressed to Robert Rogers, Esq., whose wife was present at the baptism of John Thruston's son John. The manuscript then passes...
Dates:
1604 - 1925
Margaret M. Tillotson album
Collection — Folder BW 45, Folder: 1/1
Identifier: MSS 16706
Content Description
This collection contains the commonplace book of Margaret Tillotson. A full commonplace book, with many of the items religious in nature, such as psalms of personal importance, the ten commandments, Jewish translations for the months of the year, poems yearning to travel to Rome or other pilgrimage sites, besides the usual miscellaneous collection of poetry. Tillotson's father was John C. Tillotson (1791-1867) who was the son of Dr. Thomas Tillotson (1750-1832), Congressman and Secretary of...
Dates:
1837 - 1841
Triangular puzzle commonplace book on love and life
Collection — Box BW 16, Folder: 1 [X030899303]
Identifier: MSS 16019
Scope and Contents
A 2 x 21/2 inch miniature triangular folded "book" with green coated stock cover with applied printed cut-out images of an imp, a frog, and a chick on front (1860's). On back are the word "Peep in this and you will find amusements for the inquiring mind." Within is miniature verse found in fold-out pages that open into circles. The first page is titled, "How to Make Love," and appears to be written by a woman from a woman's perspective. As you turn and fold the 24 center, side, and back...
Dates:
[1860's]
Polly Trumbull place book
Collection — Box BW 12, Folder: 1 [X031589499]
Identifier: MSS 16391
Scope and Contents Note
Polly Trumbull place book (1782; 0.04 cubic feet) contains extracts from Virgil, Thomson's Seasons, Fordyce's Sermons to Young Women, A Father's Legacy to his Daughters, The 5 Volume of the Spectator, Baxter's; Saints Everlasting Rest, and Principles of Politeness.
Dates:
1782 March 25
Susan W. Tudor album
Collection — Box BW 48, Folder: 1/1
Identifier: MSS 16698
Content Description
Susan W. Tudor album with numerous handwritten sentiments and poetry inscribed to her by men and women in southern Pennsylvania, mostly from East Berlin and Locust Grove. Of interest are a pasted in die-cut card illustrated by hand, a floral sketch, and two poems about escaping "Indian Maidens" which is accompanied by a nice watercolor rendering of the eponymous character in a canoe in front of a waterfall scene.
Dates:
1843 - 1860; Majority of material found within 1843
Rose Tynan album
Collection — Box BW 43, Folder: 1
Identifier: MSS 16658
Content Description
Highly decorated autograph album with full color title page, "The Aldine Autograph Album with decorated spaces and lines for sentiment and name." A majority of the album is filled with inscriptions, verse, and autographs. The first inscription written at the front is from Rose's brother, "A birthday present from J. E. Tynan to his sister Rose, June 3rd, 1882." Recorded dates range from 1882-1901 with most of the inscriptions complete with locations, including Kittanning Penn., Fresno...
Dates:
1882 - 1901
UVA History of Childhood, Parenting, and Family Building--addition 76 Mary Amidon commonplace book
Unprocessed Material — Box MSS 16758_NewAdditions_02: [Barcode: X032762575], Folder: ViU2025-0003_001
Identifier: ViU-2025-0003
UVA History of Childhood, Parenting, and Family Building-addition 90 Lydia Ann Parsons commonplace book
Unprocessed Material — Folder ViU-2026-0034_001
Identifier: ViU-2026-0034