Here are a few pages from Clara Jensen’s autograph book. She was born January 2, 1883, and it looks like she started keeping it in her late teens and early 20s.
History of autograph books
“Traditionally they were exchanged among friends, colleagues, and classmates to fill with poems, drawings, personal messages, small pieces of verse, and other mementos. Their modern derivations include yearbooks, friendship books, and guest books.
“They were popular among university students from the 15th century until the mid-19th century, after which their popularity began to wane as they were gradually replaced by yearbooks. Today’s autograph books are typically found in the hands of children collecting signatures from their favorite cartoon celebrities in amusement parks.” (Wikipedia)
One of the first entries in the autograph book is a 1902 entry by R. L. Douchenty. The word “tillen” in Sweedish mean “with regard” so “gill tillen” probably mean “with best regards”.
The next page and the cute sayings come from Clara’s her sisters Flora Fiander and Susie Fiander, in 1905 and 1902 respectively.
Images courtesy of June Carney.
Click on images to enlarge.
Eatonville To Rainier 
4 responses to “Clara Jensen’s Autograph Book (early 1900s)”
Hi Diane,
My daughter, Jenni, and I had the pleasure of meeting you and your husband this afternoon, it was so thought provoking for me!
To those of you who don’t know who I am. I am Clara Jensen’s Grand-daughter, we all called her “Gram” as did most of her friends and family did “Back in the Day”. Please note on the last photocopy here they were from Susie and Flora (not Fiona).
I have never seen or heard of Gram’s Autograph Book. I will have to ask my Aunt June for the book so I can copy it so I can have it for our side of the family. June is my Mom’s one and only sibling.
Again, it was a pleasure to meet you and get me thinking about how important it is to have open communication for families to share what they know about our History so that it won’t be lost forever when people pass on.
I wish I had asked more questions back in the day, never really thought how important it could/would be in the future!
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We had a wonderful time meting with you and looking forward to getting your photos up here on the site. 🙂 Thanks again! And looking forward to seeing you comments appear on the pages. You have a wealth of them. 🙂
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Not sure how many are for the public, we spoke of some of them. Trying to digest what we talked about, when I talk to Sally and get my head clear I am sure I will come up with some posts.
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[…] Clara (Fiander) Jensen was known for her hunting skills. In fact, her hunting prowess was covered by Sunset Magazine in 1923. Although folks who read the article may know her for tracking cats, she was a big part of the community for her entire life. […]
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