Not Just for Woman Anymore

For some unknown reason when we hear the word scrapbook, we think of females sitting around a table cutting shapes from patterned paper, discussing scrapbooking layout ideas, pasting die cuts on scrapbooking layout pages,and shoving them into page protectors while children howl at their feet. I am not quite sure how this art form transpired into a female thing because scrapbooks have been known through the ages as a genderless from of expression.

One of the most famous scrapbooks of all time sits in the Library of Congress today. It dates back to the 1870's. The compiler was none other than Lewis Carroll, author of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass. Carroll was also a lecturer of mathematics at the University of Oxford. This simple scrapbook is comprised of newspaper clippings of the day.

This was not the only scrapbook that Carroll compiled. Many still survive today and are filled with his writings, sketches, mementoes, and photographs, sans the fancy computer font, photo corners and scrapbooking borders. To the delight of his many fans and followers bits and pieces of "who he was" fill the pages of these volumes and helps keep him alive for us.

Thank goodness Lewis Carroll understood the concept of passing this gift of history and memories on to the next generation and was not hindered by the strange belief that doing so was for woman only.

There have been many other famous (and not so famous) male-scrapbookers throughout time. Men such as Mark Twain and others knew that scrapbooks don't have to be frills and fluff.

Perhaps it's time for the man of your house to try his hand at this form of history keeping for his own fans and followers. What is he interested in; politics, football, current events, hunting or fishing? Buy him a book on scrapbooking for beginners and a few "manly" scrapbooking backgrounds or download some free printable scrapbooking pages and see what happens. On the other hand, he might be more of the techie type that would enjoy keeping a record by digital scrapbooking. There are many scrapbooking layout ideas with men in mind in both the digital and physical genres.

You never know, you may have a scrapbook artist on your hands and it might just be the beginning of some pretty terrific "togetherness time".