Category Archives: antique

Isaac Newton’s Pocket Memorandum Book

A reader named Nicholas passed along a great tip about a notebook from the collection of the Morgan Library: “Thought of Notebook Stories while reading this article on Isaac Newton’s teenage pocket notebook. Video at the top of the page has some amazing images of his notebook.” The Morgan’s earliest acquisition related to the history … Continue reading Isaac Newton’s Pocket Memorandum Book

Vintage Collegiate Notebook

Here is a very cute eBay find: a 3 x 5″ Collegiate notebook that I would guess is maybe from the 1940s-1950s or maybe earlier given that the price is only 10 cents. Cool cover design and excellent brown pressboard cover. For sale on eBay as of this writing for $9.99 or best offer. After … Continue reading Vintage Collegiate Notebook

Century-Old Secrets in a Finnish Banker’s Notebook

This is quite fascinating! Sixty-two years ago in the western city of Pori, a mysterious sealed envelope from a wealthy banker named Rafael Mellin was handed over to the local association Pori Seura. The group was established in 1901 and promotes the city’s culture and historical preservation but also is active in local environmental and social issues. Two … Continue reading Century-Old Secrets in a Finnish Banker’s Notebook

Beethoven’s Conversation Books

I recently came across a mention of notebooks used by Beethoven: Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827) is recognized the world over as a composer of musical masterpieces exhibiting heroic strength, particularly in the face of his increasing deafness from ca. 1798. By 1818, the Viennese composer had begun carrying blank booklets with him, for his acquaintances … Continue reading Beethoven’s Conversation Books

The Exercise Book Archive

What a cool thing: The Exercise Book Archive is a website that is preserving exercise books, otherwise known as children’s school notebooks, from around the world and over hundreds of years! You can click on each notebook and see larger images of the cover and interior. Here’s the pink one from 1980s China in the … Continue reading The Exercise Book Archive

Édouard Manet’s Notebook

Here’s something I came across on the website of the Morgan Library: This is the only surviving personal notebook of the French artist Édouard Manet (1832–1883). He used it in the early 1860s, when he was between the ages of twenty-eight and thirty, documenting aspects of his everyday life and work in the two years … Continue reading Édouard Manet’s Notebook

Bonnie Parker’s Notebook

I usually don’t like to write about notebooks that are associated with crime– they usually involve the sociopathic journal entries of serial killers or mass shooters and I have no desire to give them any further publicity. But here’s a notebook that harkens back to an era of more romanticized (if not much less violent) … Continue reading Bonnie Parker’s Notebook

“Old notebooks that open a window on lost world of Wensleydale cheese”

Isn’t that just the best headline ever? It kills me that this story didn’t include a photo of the actual notebooks! It is a story that is, literally, as old as the hills, yet its history can be traced in just eight small notebooks. The accounts ledgers of Victorian bookkeepers in the upper Dales, meticulously … Continue reading “Old notebooks that open a window on lost world of Wensleydale cheese”

Century-Old Salmon-Smeared Notebooks 

Sounds pleasant, doesn’t it? A fishy old notebook? But this is actually a pretty cool story! One day in June 1919, workers in a busy Canadian cannery in Port Essington rushed to clean, cook, and can the bright red flesh of a huge number of sockeye salmon hauled from the nearby Skeena River. Watching the … Continue reading Century-Old Salmon-Smeared Notebooks 

Delacroix’s Notebooks, Now in English

Some of my favorite images from artists’ sketchbooks are from Eugene Delacroix’s travel notebooks. A new book now translates his notes into English for the first time. In 1832 the 34-year-old Eugène Delacroix, already well known for his Orientalist works, accompanied a French diplomatic mission to Morocco and travelled through Algeria and Andalusia. His exposure … Continue reading Delacroix’s Notebooks, Now in English