Organization of the Collection

The scrapbooks were disbound and fragments of clippings were reattached. Because many of the clippings were folded to fit into the volumes, the fold line is where much of the breakage had occurred. To remedy this, the clippings were matched and taped together. In many cases, the clippings were so brittle and cracked that entire sections were missing or could not be reattached for microfilming.

In many cases, clippings had to be unfolded for filming. Unfolding often obscured other items on the same scrapbook page. As a result, pages often had to be filmed more than once to show all of the sections unobstructed. The page numbering which appears in an upper corner will assist users in determining which pages required multiple microfilm images.

The scrapbooks are arranged chronologically. The materials within earlier volumes follow a fairly strict chronological order, while clippings in later volumes are often out of order. As a result, the dates of individual volumes in the contents list represents the bulk of the materials; the volumes contain occasional items outside the dates listed. Users should also be aware that inclusive dates occasionally overlap from one volume to the next.

All of the scrapbooks were kept in Mark Twain's Perforated Interleaved Scrap Books published by Daniel Slote and Company of New York. Unused index pages and other front matter were not filmed. Detached clippings and other loose materials were filmed at the end of each volume. Small undated fragments of clippings were not filmed.

Due to the severe deterioration of the scrapbooks, the contents of the volumes have been discarded, with the exception of ephemeral printed materials such as circular letters, flyers, ballots, and palm cards.