On Women & Friendship (A Collection Of Victorian Keepsakes And Traditions)

This book is an evocation of the ties between women in the Victorian era as communicated through their prized friendship albums and carefully crafted gifts of sentiment. Their keepsake books became living histories as women inscribed poetry and prose, added illustrations, attached a lock of hair, or inserted tokens of their handwork between the pages of their friends' albums. The author discusses friendship albums and gift books; published anthologies of prose and poetry; tokens exchanged between women such as punchwork, hairwork, quilting and photographs; and the complex Victorian etiquette for forming and expressing relationships.