Accession No. RARE.2023.0053: Purchased, 2023 July
[identification of item], Christiana Dame Friendship Album, SPEC.RARE.MMS.0368, Rare Books and Manuscripts Library, Ohio State University
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Processed by: David Mezick, 2023 September; Finding aid written by: David Mezick, 2023 September
Friendship albums were bound books with blank pages intended to be shared with someone's friends and family members so that they could sign their names and add a personal message, poem or drawing. These books were kept as a document of a person’s friendships and social connections. They became popular in the United States during the 19th century, and their popularity peaked during the American Civil War. Usually, the owners of friendship albums were young women or girls. The owner of this friendship album was Christiana (Christie) Dame, who lived in Ohio during the American Civil War.
The Christiana Dame Friendship Album contains a friendship album owned by Christiana Dame with entries dated from 1859-1865. The album contains personal messages and poems that were written to Dame mostly by her friends and family in northern Ohio, including Carey, Upper Sandusky, Wooster, and Richville. Some of the messages were written by individuals from New York and Canada.