What makes it a scrapbook

The other day I was reading one of the many scrapbooking forums (sorry could not find the forum) and a person started arguing with another poster that her digital scrapbooking layout collection couldnt be considered a scrapbook. After rolling my eyes at a person who was just making a mountain out of a mole hill, or is just closed minded to other possibilities, I started to think. What really is it that makes our collection of cherished memories a scrapbook. Now some dictionaries define a scrapbook as a book, similar to a notebook or journal, in which personal or family memorabilia and photos are collected and arrange. But really if you look at the history of the craft way before Utah, you will see that scrapbooks were products of the current technology

Now some historians say beginning in the 15th century, commonplace books, popular in England, emerged as a way to compile information that included recipes, quotes, letters, poems and more. Each commonplace book was unique to its creator's particular interests. Friendship albums became popular in the 16th century. These albums were used much like modern day yearbooks, where friends or patrons would enter their names, titles and short texts or illustrations at the request of the album's owner. These albums were often created as souvenirs of European tours and would contain local memorabilia including coats of arms or works of art commissioned by local artisans. Then in 1570, it became fashionable to add colored elements depicting popular scenes such as Venetian costumes or Carnival scenes. These provided affordable options as compared to original works and, as such, these items were not sold to commemorate or document a specific event but specifically as embellishments for albums. Later in 1826 with the development of modern photography created by Joseph Nicéphore Niépce, came what was seen as the first permanent photograph . Photography became available to an ever-widening population with the invention of George Eastman's paper photographs in the late 1880s and the mass production of the Kodak Brownie, a camera designed to be simple (and inexpensive) enough for a child, in 1900. This allowed the average person to begin to incorporate photographs into their scrapbooks.

So as you can start to see what we now see as scrapbooks, photo books, and even photo albums, were just results of the technology that was made available to the average person. Now look around today at the average household. More and more people are moving away from paper items (books, newspapers, magazines, etc..) for several reason. Paper is getting more and more expensive, it takes up room, if not properly stored and treated it can fade or even deteriorate. So it stands to reason that people will move to a more technical solution to collect their sacred memories and mementos. In the 20th century and before paper was the gold standard there was nothing better, but now there is a choice, and as more people become better aquinted with technology, I see more people storing their scrapbooks electronically. Whether its a electronic frame, a slide show on their media PC, or its a online slide show, I really see this new presentation medium as an extension of what has come before for hundreds of years.

Now personally I prefer the idea of having a paper album with memories that you can thumb through, but really with my available time, and my skills with computer graphics, I have decided to do my layouts digitally. Does this mean all paper scrappers need to go digi? Heavens no. Its just there are many of us that are comfortable doing digital, just like there are many who only do paper. I think the future of the craft is a bridging of the two ideas Whether thats making designs digitally and printing it out using services like craftsassy.com or Photo Books {etc}. Or designing your projects with paper, verious tools and glues and scannig them, or maybe it will be a interactive technology we have only dreamed of. The bottom line is like any creative medium there are many variations out there, and we can all appreciate each others work and collectively say we all make scrapbooks.

Thanks for yor time

Jeff