If you are alive today (and are computer literate) chances are you have heard of Pinterest. I have often called it “stumble upon for ladies”. If you’re a young 20 something and planning a wedding (ahem)… you practically live on Pinterest. Frankly I often wonder how people got things done before its existence. If you are at all into vintage it is also a wonderful portal to explore your interest. If you haven’t used or heard of it here is how Pinterest describes itself:

“Pinterest is a virtual pinboard. Pinterest allows you to organize and share all the beautiful things you find on the web. You can browse boards created by other people to discover new things and get inspiration from people who share your interests” via Pinterest.com

Heres a picture of the front page:

As you can see we have recipes, exercise routines, fashion, quotes, and photographs all represented.

This concept is nothing new. People have been sharing recipes, decorating houses, planning weddings, and getting before Pinterest burst on to the scene. Scrapbooking was there long before the internet (and still is for many dedicated hobby-ists out there). When we think of scrapbooks I often think of picture albums, but this is a common misconception. Scrapbooking was popular long before the photograph. People would often clip out items from magazines and news papers, greeting cards, calling cards, quotes etc. Working in museums, I have even seen recycled books turned into scrapbooks where clippings were pasted right over the page. I’ve also seen scrapbooks dedicated to pressed flowers and hair jewelry  Photographs in scrapbooks didn’t become that common until the mid to late 1800s and after.

Over the years I’ve seen many different incarnations of the scrapbooks. These pictures are from scrapbooks  we are featuring in our December 10th auction. Just like today, celebrities and fashion were hot topics… looks pretty familiar right?.

Now here are some items from my Pinterest page.

Not all that different eh? Interests span time and generations. Sure, most of us aren’t literally cutting and pasting (or are we via our computers)? Although Pinterest isn’t a physical scrapbook it still is a visual representation of things that inspire us. As we move forward in the digital age, its often nice to stop and take a step back to consider what the predecessor is and how we got to the current incarnation. Technology changes fast, but the idea of saving important things never goes out of style, especially in the auction business.

For more information on our upcoming auctions be sure to visit our website! Happy cutting/pinning!