autograph books

Celebrity inscription albums

Autograph books are small notebooks kept for collecting signatures, brief messages, and well-wishes from friends, classmates, or celebrities.

They were especially popular among schoolchildren in the 19th and early 20th centuries, often passed around at the end of a school year: She treasured her grandmother's autograph book from 1912.

The tradition continues in yearbook signing and celebrity autograph collecting.

Opposites
authorship and inscription source

autograph booksdiaries

Personal daily records

journals · personal diaries · memoirs · autobiographies · dream journals

content permanence and formality

autograph bookscommonplace books

Personal excerpt compilations

scrapbooks · photo albums · yearbooks

direction of inscription

autograph booksguest books

Records of who attended

Family

autograph, book, auto, graph, autographs, autographed, autographing, books, booked

Familiarity
Top 200,000
Profile
Known to kids · Used worldwide · Timeless · Concrete · Positive · Everyday, not technical · Rated G