Here’s another fun eBay find: a vintage Marquette looseleaf notebook. I’m always quite excited to find vintage notebooks like this that are in excellent condition despite being at least 60 or 70 years old.

This notebook is pocket size, measuring approximately 3 5/8 x 5 1/2″. The cover is faux leather and somewhat flexible. Aside from a bit of wear on the corners, it doesn’t seem to have been heavily used.

The inside back cover shows the model number, 1-126, and notes that it was made in the USA. I’m guessing it is from the 1940s or 1950s, when almost all stationery sold in the USA would also have been made here.

I love how the original cover sheet for the filler paper is included, noting that you can buy more at long-gone Woolworth’s. It includes a helpful note on how to open the rings.

The other fabulous detail is the set of hand-made dividers that someone made labels for using a typewriter. None of the previous owner’s actual notes are included, unfortunately. I’d love to know more about what books and records and gifts this person was making note of (I’m assuming “records” referred to record albums, but it may have meant records in the sense of medical data and other information.) and what sort of wedding they were planning.

The notebook also came with additional filler paper, still with the original wrappers: Marquette brand lined paper, and National brand unlined paper, with cool red edges. (I already have some of this exact paper from another eBay purchase, which you can see in this post about a Japanese looseleaf notebook.)

I have another Marquette diary in my collection, but hadn’t been able to find out much about this brand. From the few images I’ve seen of Marquette products, there is usually a W logo on them, which leads me to believe that it was a proprietary brand made for Woolworth’s. An Etsy listing for a packet of filler paper, probably from a later time period, refers to Woolworth and lists the manufacturer as Geo. Seelman & Sons of Milwaukee, WI.

The Seelman stationery company no longer exists, but various online tidbits show that it was founded in 1906 by an immigrant from Germany and dissolved in 1993 by a Joseph Seelman, who was probably a great-grandson of George, and just died in 2019. The company registered the Marquette trademark in 1957, though it was obviously in use long before that. According to a Wisconsin history site, Seelman’s headquarters was also the home of the Milwaukee Envelope Co. Based on a patent application and some biographical data I found, it seems that the Envelope Co. was founded by Seelman, and he also either founded or bought out the Milwaukee Blank Book Company. Seelman & Sons was probably a fairly large stationery company at one point, but may have gone out of business due to competition as other companies formed large conglomerates. From what I could find, it does not seem like the Seelman company was bought out or merged with anyone. I always go down quite a rabbit hole researching these things, often it’s a microcosm of American history.

I love finding notebooks like this, that were totally normal, basic stationery items many decades ago, yet seem quite rare and special now, compared to the similar items you can buy today. It has a slightly musty smell, a wee bit cigarette-y, that manages not to be unpleasant, and really evokes a sense of the past. The Marquette looseleaf notebook is another reminder that they don’t make ’em like they used to.