“Constructing the Self: Legacy and Memory in Bucknell Women’s Scrapbooks“
An exhibit by Claire Jenkins ‘25
In the Spring of 2025, History Major Claire Jenkins curated an exhibit in the Bertrand Library Entrance after her research in the University Archives uncovered a collections of scrapbooks. She found a love of finding history within the scrapbooks that inspired her History 400 paper, and her first public exhibit.
It is safe to say that most Bucknell University students, faculty, and staff have some form of social media. Our profiles display our cherished memories as well as how we want to be perceived by the public. Public perception and memories were important to Americans of the late 19th and early 20th centuries as well, and one of the ways they demonstrated these interests were through scrapbooks.
Similar to the modern-day fad of social media, scrapbooking allowed people to remember important events and construct their own public perception. Compilers of scrapbooks collected and pasted personal items, newspaper clippings, calling cards, and other printed media that showcased their personality, interests, and life experiences.
Though the American public feminized the hobby as a woman’s craft, scrapbooking during this time was popular among men; some even saw male scrapbookers as the sole historians and makers of history. This exhibit thus focuses on the scrapbooks of two women who attended Bucknell University. These women are just two of many who exhibit women’s agency in how they constructed their personal history, legacy, and memory through scrapbooking.
Claire Jenkins ’25
History
Film Media Studies Minor
After graduation Claire will be the Library and Archives Intern at the Philadelphia Museum of Art for the first eight weeks of the summer. After that, she plans on taking a gap year before applying to graduate programs within the museum studies and public history realm.