Collections : [University of Virginia, Special Collections Dept.]

This collection contains two similarly designed autograph albums belonging to Esther Lightner Matson and her husband Frank A. Matson. The albums contain inscriptions to Esther Lightner Matson from fellow students and teachers at the Santee Normal School and to Frank A. Matson from the Genoa Indian School, both Native American Residential schools in Nebraska and taught by Quakers in the 1880's. The albums look like typical nineteenth century autograph albums except for the page(s) that are written using Sioux Dakota language. The albums measure 7.5x 6.25 with raised papermache flowers on the covers. The albums are also beautifully illustrated inside the album with flowers and other small drawings. The title page of Frank Matson's album is decorated with a handwritten design of tiny tree logs in the lettering. Most of the names in the entries seem to be English names and were probably changed from their Sioux names. According to Wikipedia,

A Victorian novelty album owned by a person named Grace from Massachusetts. The covers are pasted with colorful die cut-outs on a background of printed lace paper doilies. The album is in the shape of a triange with scalloped edges, in its original (cardboard) triangle-shaped box.

This collection features a memory book belonging to Miss Isabella Bain (1855-1934) of New Orleans, Louisiana. Various personal letters from friends and New Orleans community members addressed to Miss Bain are included.

This collection contains Jane Florence Connor's autograph album (1857-1946). The album contains two original watercolors by Johnston as well as ink drawings, and calligraphy. Also included are numerous autographs, well-wishes, notes, and drawings from numerous Philadelphia-area friends of the Connor family, some of whom are connected to Johnston's circle.

Album amicorums were an early friendship and autograph book. This volume is bound in contemporary calf skin with a gilt embossed plate on both covers and the bookbinder's mark WL; all edges are gilt. It is in a modern slipcase. The manuscript is ink on paper comprised of 173 leaves with twenty-eight miniatures in gouache including one full-page allegorical depiction on the verso of the first leaf, twenty-four coats of arms (two mounted) mostly with motto and entry, two full-page depictions of women's costumes (one with coat of arms), and one depiction of a flag-waving lansquenet, a German mercenary foot soldiers, as well as nine text entries without pictorial contribution. Most of the entries date 1605-1609, all written in Latin, mainly by students or scholars from the University of Freiburg im Breisgau belonging to notable families of Southwest Germany and Alsace.

This collection contains a friendship album for Malinda "Lin" Caperton (1842-1922) of West Virginia. The album contains approximately thirty pages of autographs with dates throughout, 1855-1861. The autographs are almost certainly all from young girls, some noted as likely classmates from the Virginia Female Institute, although a lengthy two-page poem is more likely a male student at the University of Virginia.

This collection consists of the album from Mary Webster, a young woman from Madison, Ohio. Entries include a variety of poems and notes from friends of Mary. Some of the poetry may be original works. Inside are five finished engravings: these tend to have small black and white biblical scenes with large, colored floral borders that extend up the page. The flowers are identified, and meanings attributed to the flower are identified below the illustrations.

An autograph album of a Miss Glasgow, of Virginia, contains autographs, 1842-1847, of American statesmen including John Quincy Adams, Millard Fillmore, Alexander H.H. Stuart, and Henry A. Wise.

This collection contains the autograph album of Summerfield Smith (1836-1864), compiled while he was a student at the University of Virginia. Smith collected fifty-eight autographs of peers and professors at the University between 1856 and 1858. The red leather-bound autograph book contains entries that list a student's name, the date of entry, their location, where they lived away from the University, the "session" (i.e. 1857-58), and a personal note to Summerfield (referred to as "Summerfield", "S", or "Smith" throughout). Inscriptions include well-wishes for careers and family life, references to jokes between Summerfield and his friends, and descriptions of student life at the University of Virginia in the middle nineteenth century. Some entries did not include personal notes. Alongside the autographs of five men is their date of death during the Civil War, written in pencil.