Scrapbooking as we know it today has had quite an evolution since the first known scrapbook of 1598 which the author used to keep written words and phrases. In 1706 men and women of society would also paste phrases and quotes but in addition would use scraps of brightly colored paper, labels and advertisements in the books they referred to as �common place books.� It is the use of these scraps that later lead to the term scrapbooking.

Some of the better known scrapbookers included Thomas Jefferson who used to paste articles about his presidency in his common place books and Mark Twain, who used to reserve Sundays for his hobby and even patented his own scrapbooking kit.

During the Victoria Era a visitor would leave a calling card when visiting the home of a friend.  These cards were very elaborate-as was the time in general-and often quite colorful, making a lovely addition to one�s common place book. It was during this time that the books became more elaborate, the covers decorated with wallpaper, or made of leather and some even having locks to ensure privacy. You can see samples of common place books at: http://www.collegiateway.org/csc/albums/commonplace/commonplace.html or by visiting your local library.

It was during the end of the 19^th century that scrapbooking was at its most popular. Magazines published articles on the topic and there were even instruction manuals and stores that sold supplies for this hobby.

In the 1880�s the Kodak camera became available and as a result people would add some photographs in with their colorful scraps to help document the period. However it was in 1980 when the Christensen family of Utah shared their volumes of books about their family and history at the World Conference on Records that scrapbooking as we know it started. The idea of using archival safe materials that were acid free and therefore wouldn�t slowly deteriorate had begun and we haven�t looked back since. Today the scrapbooking industry is a $1.4 billion dollar industry and still growing!