"Golden Floral Album" is an autograph book with botanical illustrations. The album is inscribed by Frank Walker on July 14, 1883, Sallie B. Wilkinson on April 27, 1883, J. Cardwell? (a friend) on July 21, 1883 from Chattanooga, Tennessee. Hand-written excerpts and verses include a memoriam poem 'Mrs. Nassau Senior' featured in Spectator magazine, a verse from "The Album Writer's Friend" by J.S. Ogilvie, a verse by J.K. Pauling, "In Kentucky" by James H. Mulligan, and "The Bonnie Blue Flag" by Harry Macarthy." It also includes illustrations of plants and flowers.
Label Text:
Autograph albums were originally exchanged between friends and classmates to write poems, drawings, messages and verses. German immigrants brought the tradition to America in the late eighteenth century. A popular pursuit of middle-class Victorian ladies was the addition of poems and flower eulogies carefully penned on the margins of the pages. Many of these sentimental albums were not just souvenirs but carried deeper meanings through the language of flowers.
