In my post about Denbigh notebooks, I linked to a site that had a photo of a Denbigh notebook from the 1960s: Drew Family Diaries. These diaries are worth a post of their own! Roger Drew created a website to share this amazing collection of diaries kept by members of his family, starting with his … Continue reading The Drew Family Diaries
I forget how I came across this very poignant notebook. It is a diary belonging to Peter Feigl, a 13-year old Austrian Jewish refugee in Vichy France. …Peter wrote about the traumatic events he had just experienced in his diary. His parents were first taken to an internment camp at Le Vernet, and the diary that … Continue reading Peter Feigl’s Diary
You’d think a headline like “Marlon Brando’s Little Black Book” would have caught my eye, but I missed this article on Slate when it was published in 2013. Marlon Brando dropped this battered address book on the stage of New York’s Barrymore Theatre while appearing in A Streetcar Named Desire in 1949. The loss of … Continue reading Marlon Brando’s Notebook
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 … Continue reading Vintage Marquette Looseleaf 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
I picked up this vintage travel diary on eBay for about $7. I’m not sure exactly when it would have been manufactured, but it definitely dates from an era when travel was quite a different experience from what it is today! The diary begins with 17 pages of frontmatter, most of which consists of various … Continue reading Vintage Travel Diary
An amazing article by Steve Lange, from Rochester Magazine: When my Nana died, a dozen years ago this month, she left me—or I was given—two items as mementos. Her notebook entries cover 73 years, from “June 10, 1933: Married†through Jan. 25, 2006, just a few months before she died. I can’t read the last … Continue reading A Grandmother’s Notebook
Gorgeous old notebooks! These belonged to a Portuguese historian and geographer named Orlando Ribeiro. Read and see more at Famous Sketchbooks: Orlando Ribeiro’s Field Notebooks | Endpaper: The Paperblanks Blog.
These are described as “Sweet Bella vintage Italian notebooks from the ’40s and ’50s.” If they are really that old and not reproductions made more recently, that is pretty cool! They look brand new… Sweet Bella’s website features some products from Antica Cartotecnica which are said to be vintage items “culled from decades of … Continue reading Italian Notebooks from the 1940s-1950s
A cool story from the Manchester Evening News: Angela Prince, 74, found the dust-covered notebooks while clearing the attic of her aunt and uncle’s attic in Partington. They appear to be written by children of the Hall family, who ran the medical herbalists Hall’s Hygiene in Salford until the 1970s. Retired secretary Angela, who … Continue reading World War 2 Diaries Found in Attic
