Dorothy L. Davis was born on February 16, 1905 to Benjamin and Lydia Davis of Pennsylvania. The family later moved to Brooklyn, New York and Dorothy attended Manual Training High School. In the early 1920s, the family moved to 55 Spencer Avenue in Lynbrook, New York. After graduating high school, Dorothy found employment as a secretary clerk for a life insurance company. She married Harold Ward Clark and had a son Stanley D. Clark in 1931. Dorothy Clark died on August 29, 1997 in Queens, New York.

Dorothy assembled these scrapbooks while living in Lynbrook, New York. The first scrapbook contains newspaper clippings of poems, movie stars, scenery, and articles on home decorating and the married life. A separate folder contains loose clippings from this scrapbook. The second scrapbook contains newspaper clippings chronicling the start of World War II and European conflicts in 1939.