Historical information

According to the front page this autograph book belonged to Patricia Spencer of Spencer Street, Dartmoor. Dartmoor is a small settlement on the Princes Highway between Heywood and the South Australian border. It was first settled in the late 1850s and the main industry is the processing of timber from the surrounding pine plantations. Patricia Spencer attended Warrnambool High School in the late1930s and this album contains a number of entries from Warrnambool High School in 1938. It also has a page of eleven signatures of the Head Master, George Langley and other teachers from Warrnambool High School. There are also entries from people from Mortlake and Panmure and other entries with the person’s address not indicated. Autograph books such as this one were commonly owned by young people in the 19th and 20th centuries (up to about 1950) and were very popular with young girls.

Significance

This album, although incomplete and tattered, is of interest because it is a good example of the social custom, more popular a couple of generations back than it is today, of young people owning and obtaining signatures and verses from their friends and acquaintances. It is also important because it contains signatures of Warrnambool High School teachers in 1938 and there are other entries of interest.

Physical description

This is a small autograph album that was originally bound with a cardboard cover with red leather backing but now has no front cover and only part of the back cover. The pages are all loose and the front section (buff-coloured) has a cardboard piece with felt padding. The pages are coloured in a variety of pastel tones and there are many handwritten entries of verses and signatures, with several from the ‘B’ Form, 1938, of ‘W.H.S. (Warrnambool High School). The album appears to have belonged to Patricia Spencer from Dartmoor. Some of the pages are torn and stained. At the back there are remnants of a sketch of an Asian scene and a letter to ‘Pat’ for her birthday.

Inscriptions & markings

‘Autographs’
‘Patricia Spencer, Spencer Street, Dartmoor’