ALBUM BUREAU

The month of May is dedicated to my collection of old albums. I will be posting images and stories related to this collection, which includes some fascinating snippets of people's everyday lives. May's entries will include photograph albums, scrap books, sketch books, recordings of journeys, recipe collections, account books, diary's and scribbled notes.

Painting Album

The paintings in this anonymous album date from the 1900s through to the 1930s.

Favorite Recipes Album

There are plenty of traditional recipes in this album, possibly spanning a couple of generations. The baking and dessert section is my favorite with instructions for making Sponge Cake, Pound Cake, Macaroons and Beehive Biscuits.

Sketch Book Album

Sketch Book album with black and white photographs of someone's holiday and leisure time. There are many blank pages with pretty paper photo corners, indicating the many missing photographs separated from this album at some point over the years.

Jennifer Goodall's Diary 1951

Collins Pearl Diary with a small pencil stored in the spine.
Here is an entry from Monday 1st January 1951. Jennifer had quite a difficult New Years day.

Rough Notes

Pure Mathematics school book belonging to Alan Bruce.

Silvine Memo Books

My Great Grandad Fred always used Silvine Memo books as a diary. Here are a couple from his collection that were inherited by his grandson John, my father. My father continued the family tradition using the same memo books for recording his journeys and work related notes. He worked as an engineer for Burroughs Computers in the 70s and 80s, traveling around Lancashire and beyond to fix bank equipment. Below is a page from one of his many books.

A Photograph Album From Lancashire

This album came from a second hand stall in the Winter Gardens, Blackpool.
It has a wonderful collection of photographs depicting an elegant looking couple enjoying the sights of Morcambe and surrounding areas. I will be revealing more images from the album in next month's Monthly Bureau.

The Colunio Stamp Club

Frank Brown created the Colunio Stamp Club Magazine. His friends G. Doyle, B. Davey, P. Wilcock
and P. Daykin were contributors. Above is the members card and the second edition, compiled in a Century Note Book, dated March 18th 1944. There are some interesting snippets of the era, including a section on how to save paper for salvage.

Found: Preston Market 2010.

Scrapbook of The Stars by Frank Brown

This is my favorite book in Frank Brown's collection. This scrapbook called 'The Stars', is a beautiful tribute to 1940s Silver Screen Goddesses. It documents them in alphabetical order in his carefully assembled A to Z index. It is unfinished, there is a pile of loose newspaper cuttings waiting to be added to the pages of his Century Notebook. 

Autograph Album

A tiny autograph album, belonging to Olwen Higginson of Leyland.

It is an interesting arrangement of signatures and photographs from the 1950s, collected on his journeys to religious conventions in Belgium, Switzerland, Germany and Canada.

Wills's Cigarette Picture-Card Album

                                  Album of Household Hints, belonging to Hubert Boardman.

This Lovely Lancashire Album

An album with newspaper cuttings featuring twelve charming villages in Lancashire, photographed by Fred Armstrong on his tour from Cronton to Seathwaite. It was compiled by Frank Brown from Colne, Lancashire, cicra 1948.

Frank used one of his old maths exercise books to create it, cutting and pasting the articles with great care. His homework scribbles, in black ink, are still visible at the edges of several pages. It is a very good example of wartime recycling and making use of things around the home, something folk had to do during the 1940s.

Books by Frank Brown

A collection of books created by Frank Brown.

I was fortunate enough to discover these paper delights at Preston Flea Market a couple of years ago. Frank loved making notes, lists and creating scrap books in his Century school note books. I will be showing you these in more detail over the next couple of weeks.

Account Book

An account book belonging to Walter Augustus Martin Esq. It is a record of his account at the National Provincial Bank, Croydon branch, from August 1939 to February 1943.

Mr. Hoad's Driving Licence

A Driving Licence belonging to Mr. George Albert Hoad of Croydon. They were issued in the 1950s and there is one from 1974.

Handmade Photograph Album