American Death Books

There is an odd hobby that some Americans have practiced: pasting obituaries into scrapbooks. Originally, this seems to have been an outgrowth of the tradition of recording births, marriages and deaths in the family bible. As newspapers became common, the handwritten notes gave way to obituary clippings. However, things start to get a bit weird when the clippings extend to freak accidents, and the subjects are strangers. Recently, Phoo, a member of the Printed Ephemera Tribe I started, posted some interesting images from such a book. As he described it:

"...glued in a scrapbook - a copy of "bible footlights for the pilgrims path" that someone turned into a scrapbook - has things glued into it dated 1855 through early 1930s - mostly news paper clippings about car accidents/farm accidents/horrible deaths - stories about multiple births or adult multiple siblings - really really old people - and prayers - "

Particularly interesting is this clipping from an unknown newspaper in the forties:

"Ax Slips, Girl Dies in Mock Guillotining

NEW YORK (U.S.) - Miss Al? Iverson was killed by an ax blade while she gaily played Marie Antoinette in a mock guillotining. Harold Finn, 19, of the Bronx, who playfully held an ax above Miss Iverson's bared white throat, only to have the ax slip from its handle so that its sharp edged blade fell, severing Miss Iverson's jugular vein, was held without bail by Magistrate David Hirschfield. Finn protested his innocence of any intent to kill the pretty young girl. All the others at the birthday party of Miss Astrid Larson, in Brooklyn, where Miss Everson bled to death, joined Finn in declaring the girl's death wholly an accident. It was considered probably that the youth would be released today. Someone had brought the ax into the room, declaring himself a "bouncer" for the merry party, which numbered about 20 girls and youths. Finn, carrying on the joke, seized the axe, and bade Miss Iverson kneel to receive the "death stroke." She knelt in mock solemnity. Finn lifted the ax as if to strike. An instant later Miss Iverson was dead."