Social Media in the Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Centuries. Friendships, Feelings and Ambitions in the Albums of Aristocratic Women in Belgium

In this article, I investigate the correlation between albums as collectors of memory and records of friendships on the one hand and the construction of the album-maker’s identity on the other hand. A focus on the contents and the function of albums in combination with a survey of archival sources and recent literature reveals how this social medium served the albums’ makers from their youth onwards. In particular I concentrate on how friendships forged for life were visualized during adolescence, how feelings were channelled through drawings and watercolours, and how personal ambitions were e... Mehr ...