Newport Nuggets… gems from the RFL archives

Introducing a new RFL blog: treasures from our collection of scrapbooks!
Scrap books, first known as commonplace books in the 1600’s, have always been a way for people to collect meaningful materials. Scrap booking became a popular hobby in the United States around 1825, and remained so into the early part of the 2oth century. Some famous early “scrapbookers” were Thomas Jefferson, who began in 1758 at age fifteen, and Mark Twain, who invented a self-pasting scrapbook in 1872. Falling off after World War I, scrap booking regained its popularity in 1987 when Creative Memories began marketing scrapbooks. The Richards Free Library has a collection of personal scrapbooks which reflect historical Newport. Although they seldom record the source or date of entries, we hope you will like these snapshots of local history. So check back soon to see what interesting stories “Newport Nuggets” has mined from these archives!