Tracing Mexico's Shifting Cultural Identity through Print Media: Scrapbook on ledger, Estados Unidos Mexicanos Impresión de Timbre (ca. 1880-1910)

The scrapbook is made with a repurposed leather-bound business ledger, roughly 32"x12" in size. The date of manufacturing is unknown, but it can be dated between 1880-1910. 

How does one understand a book that lacks words? That was the main question surrounding the analysis of the scrapbook. In the 19th century, scrapbooks were created for the purpose of documenting experiences much like diaries. Scrapbooks were unique in this idea because it allowed illiterate people to tell their stories. Scrapbooking boomed during this period due to the industrialization of image print. The scrapbook itself contained over 200 images that could be categorized into various groups. Groups like buildings, battles/armed conflict, and ruins/pre-Columbian. Seeing the spread of the categorized helps visualize what the creator of the object felt was most important to paste to the book itself. 

The largest category is buildings. There were 120 examples in this category alone. The next largest category is nature with 21 examples in the scrapbook. The difference in sizes show that the creator felt that the buildings were what interested them the most. This fits with the time period that it was created in. I have found that the scrapbook was made between 1880-1910. This time period is known as the Porfiriato. The Porfiriato was an era in Mexican History which had great economic, cultural, social, and technological changes during it. Many of the images perfectly reflect the era they are found within. The Porfiriato also reflected a period of nationalism. Many Mexican people were extremely proud of all the changes that were happening within their Nation including the creation of a railway network. Understanding this scrapbook, is to understand the age at which it is made. 

• Garvey, Ellen Gruber. Writing with Scissors: American Scrapbooks from the Civil War to the Harlem Renaissance. New York: Oxford University Press, 2013. 
• Gretton, Thomas. “Posada and the ‘Popular’: Commodities and Social Constructs in Mexico before the Revolution.” Oxford Art Journal 17, no. 2 (1994): 32–47. http://www.jstor.org/stable/1360573. 
• Mraz, John. “Picturing Mexico’s Past: Photography and ‘Historia Gráfica.’” South Central Review 21, no. 3 (2004): 24–45. http://www.jstor.org/stable/40039889.