Accession No. RARE.2023.0052: Purchased, 2023 June
[identification of item], Ella Weisel Friendship Album, SPEC.RARE.CMS.0367, Rare Books and Manuscripts Library, Ohio State University
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Processed by: Trica McEldowney, 2023 September; Finding aid written by: Trica McEldowney, 2023 September
Friendship albums were bound books with blank pages intended for collecting autographs and short writings from friends and family. They were kept as a document of a person’s friendships and social connections. Writings, oftentimes poetry, were generally not original compositions but were instead taken from books and magazines. The selected prose was meant to convey the nature of the relationship between the owner of the album and the individual signing it. Common topics included nature, religion, family, friendship, and sometimes even death. Friendship albums were particularly popular among school age girls and young women approaching adulthood during the 19th century.
The friendship album in this collection belonged to Ella Weisel, who lived in Pennsylvania during the American Civil War.
The Ella Weisel Friendship Album contains a friendship album owned by Ella Weisel with entries dated from 1857-1864. The album contains personal messages and poems that were written to Weisel by her friends and family in Pennsylvania. There are also four items laid in the album: a name card, a newspaper clipping of the poem “The Unguarded Moment”, directions for “A New Game for Evening Amusement”, and a valentine.