Invitations scrapbook

Description

This scrapbook contains a collection of invitations and replies for the years 1862-1891 recording the social life of the Cummings Family of Cambridge, MA. The occasions range from birthday parties at first to school plays, Harvard class days and commencements, numerous weddings and, finally, wedding anniversary celebrations. Most events took place in Cambridge and Boston. Along the way there were numerous invitations to receptions for friends, assemblies, dances, clubs, musical soirees, a housewarming, "private sociables," and whist parties (one handwritten on the back of a playing card).

These invitations, some in beautifuly engraved lettering, others written in fine handwriting, often arrived in elaborately embossed and monogrammed envelopes which are also included in the collection. A few items are loosely interleaved. Unusual invitations of one to see the Japanese Embassy off "down the harbor" (1892) and another to board a special train carrying the Grand Duke Alexis of Russia from Boston to Montreal (1871).

While the invitations are carfully arranged on sturdy paper, the binding and spine of the scrapbook are loose.