Memory Scrap Book.
An American Girl’s Charmed Life
[Diaries]. Nash, Nadine. Memory Scrapbook of Nadine Nash. 1911-1916. [Queens, New York.]
Thick 8vo.; two pieces of cardboard bound in vellum; boards sewn to vellum with leather string; pages detached from spine; covers soiled and edgeworn; worn leather label affixed to spine, and evidence of there once being a second label, now detached; Nash’s annotations on the spine, upper and lower boards, and on the flap that closes the diary; string used to tie covers together deteriorated; though soiled and worn, this handmade diary – now one hundred years old – is in good condition.
165 pp. diary, hand-numbered by Nash in the top right corners; completely filled in except for the final fifteen pages, with handwritten diary entries, as well as photographs, drawings, postcards, newsclippings, pressed flowers, theatre programs and other printed material affixed to several dozen pages; together with ca. 10 pages loosely inserted, and a 19 pp. story, bound in red ribbon, titled “Dorie’s Dream” inserted at page 59. Divided into two parts: Part I (1911) appears on pages 1-64 and Part II (1912-1916) on pages 66-139.
With Nash’s drawing and a poem affixed to the front endpaper that reads, “I love to try to paint and draw/The queerest things you ever saw/And so to prove the book is mine/I’m painting here this little sign./What’s more, I’ll add my name below/To show that this is really so/Nadine Nash.” On the rear endpaper, Nash has added, “This book mother bought from Italy about 1896. Therefore it is fifteen years old now because this is 1911;” below that annotation, Nash has signed her name twice. At the top, middle and bottom edges of spine, Nash has written, “Memory Book/Vol. I/ Nadine Nash.” The upper cover has evidence of further annotations, but only the words “scrap,” “Nadine Nash” and “1911” are discernible; the flap used to close the diary urges, “Please do not open this book/without [consent] of owner – Nadine Nash”; and the lower cover reads, “You see I [ ] a very good memory, so that’s why I keep this book.” Nash has also written a dedication, “to my mother.”
A wonderful piece of ephemera recording a schoolgirl’s early teenage years at the beginning of the 20th century. Though research turns up nothing on Nash, her diary makes clear that she was from a middle class family from Flushing, Queens. She had an extensive circle of friends; she had an active social life which included parties, dances, and school functions and performances; and she traveled frequently with her family. There are references in the diary to the “Hawthorne School,” which is likely the Nathaniel Hawthorne middle school, located in Flushing, Queens.
Nash begins her diary on Valentine’s Day, 1911, when she was thirteen years old, and continues through September, 1916. It contains Nash’s account of memorable events in her life, including news about schoolmates and family; parties she attended; and family vacations to beaches on the Jersey shore, Long Island Sound in Connecticut and the Hamptons, excursions in New York City, a trans-Atlantic crossing on the Red Star Line to France, and a winter carnival on Saranac Lake in New York.
On page 31, Nash affixed an envelope marked “Old Letters/Dated 1905, 1906 etc./To Harry from Nadine,” with three letters she had written to her older brother and sent to him at the Pomfret School in Connecticut (and one letter from “Jean” to “Nad,” undated). Nash sends brief family updates to her brother; in one, Nash writes, “I hope you are well and getting along nicely with your studies. I am taking lessons too and like it very much. We are going to have an auction in about two weeks and would like to know what we will do with your books, pictures, rifle, snow-shoes, boat and magic” (Nov. 16, 1905).
True to the poem Nash included on the verso of the upper cover, she includes paintings and drawings that she made. There are three that affixed to pages 9-11. The fir
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