Scrapbooks are Rarely Complete Narratives

Each Wednesday, I usually write a post from my dissertation.

Some parts of a scrapbook may always be incomplete. For example, a family tree will be incomplete as long as more people join the family in the future or more ancestors are identified that can be added to it. Some pages of the scrapbook are only partially complete because the scrapbooker intends to add to them as time goes by. For example, one respondent has a page about her pets and adds photos to it as more pictures of her pets are taken. Some albums are incomplete in that there are still pages that could be scrapbooked but are not.

Respondents feel their albums are complete when one of two things happen. First, no more pages can physically be added to the album. Second, the topic is complete. For example, a scrapbook about a vacation is complete once the scrapbooker runs out of scrapworthy photographs and memorabilia from the vacation.

Scrapbooks are rarely complete narratives. Most scrapbooks cannot be viewed in isolation from one another if the goal is to learn the complete story of the scrapbooker. Scrapbooks are ongoing narratives about a person or a family. As time moves forward, there is simply more to scrapbook. Most scrapbooks are organized based on the passage of time, but could be organized in other ways. I will turn to how scrapbooks are organized in a couple of weeks.

Do you consider your scrapbooks complete? Why or why not?