The next time you find yourself at an antique store or yard sale, go
ahead, dig through that old box of random items. With any luck, you’ll find
some treasures; not the least of which could be a stack of memo books.
Pocket-sized memo books were
given out by all sorts of companies as promotional items starting at the turn
of the 20th century. Sometimes referred to as pocket ledgers, memo books came
manufacturers, and even organizations like the FFA. The covers varied based on
what was being advertised: A memo book promoting a bank might have just the
name and address on a plain background, while one for a seed company could
feature a colorful field scene, or a farmer smiling proudly while showing off
his bountiful harvest. Most memo books included space for notes or records, and
some also included reference sections with pertinent details on planting or
harvesting, such as charts, graphs and time tables to get the best yields.
Promoting the past
Memo books have found an
advocate in 39-year-old graphic designer Aaron Draplin. Born and raised in Michigan, Aaron left the Midwest when he was 19, moving
west to Oregon.
Not one to forget his roots, he makes frequent road trips between the two
states, and the contrast between these two very different places, and all the
states in between, made Aaron start looking at the world differently.
“Being a graphic artist, I started looking at
everything a little further past what is fashionable,” Aaron says. “I could see
all the things I’m supposed to look at as a designer, but then I would look at
regular stuff and the ‘undesign’ in that, the beauty in that, and became
interested in functional things instead of beautiful things. What I’m
interested in, the most common denominator, is really simple stuff.”
On his trips, Aaron stopped
at antique malls and yard sales to pick up memo books. He would buy a stack of
memo books for a dollar, which sometimes included some more than 100 years old.
Other times he’d buy 20 books for $12, and on rare occasion he’d spend as much
as $15 for a single piece he’d never seen before.
Before long, he had a
collection of more than 1,000 memo books dating from the late 1880s to the
mid-1980s. So about three years ago Aaron and his friend Jim Coudal began
scanning the booklets to create a digital archive of the collection.
“Part of my quest to scan
these little books is to preserve something from the American landscape that
will disappear forever once it’s gone,” Aaron says. “Little memo books have
just been around forever. The inherent benefit to wearing a promotional hat is
you don’t have to look at the sun. The benefit of a memo book is to collect
your ideas. Now, you have your stuff on your iPhone, but when my iPhone dies my
information is gone.”
Keeping history alive
In addition to preserving
history, Aaron also feels strongly about the connection to the past made
possible by the memo books. “We had some with handwriting from little old
ladies. So many ghosts: Someone used this thing, someone lived in this thing,”
he says. “A lot of people don’t remember, or don’t know, what it’s like to be
concerned about what a cup of coffee costs. These books are like little
ledgers. With a woman as head of the family, she kept all the finances in check
in here. Fixed a flat tire, got this shipment, did this thing, did that thing,
all in 40- and 50-cent increments. How often do we keep track of everything we
spend in a day?”
Spanning a century, Aaron’s
collection covers the gamut of companies that used memo books as promotional
material. “Those from the late 1880s and the turn of the century are like
little bank ledgers. There are a ton from 1895 to 1902 made for haberdasheries.
They’re just simple little books, a little more urban than rural or agrarian,”
he says. “The farm stuff – for ointments and medications, farm books, elixirs –
the farm stuff starts to take off in the ‘30s, until the big seed guys in the
‘50s and ‘60s got into it to promote the business.”
Accessible collection
Aaron’s passion for memo
books led to a business venture: In 2006, he and Jim decided to bring back memo
books in the form of Field Notes brand notebooks. Paying homage to the farm
memo books that started it all, Field Notes introduced National Crop Edition
books last spring. The set of six books provides information about corn,
soybeans, hay, wheat, cotton and sorghum in a simple way that is reminiscent of
the memo books Aaron has in his collection.
The group put together a
video of Aaron’s memo books that can be seen alongside the online archive of his collection.
“I think a lot of it has to
do with my experience going and looking at antiques and seeing these
unscientific values given to glassware and old signs, the American antique
landscape. There’s no science to it,” he says. “Then to see some old memo book;
I’m not paying $20 for this because they feel it is supposed to be an old
relic, I’m paying $20 because I want to share this little love of mine in a way
that you don’t have to go and find them in some antique mall. I just undercut
anyone who was trying to make them too special. I just wanted to make them
accessible. It’s not about making a buck; it’s about getting them out there.”
Three years into the
project, the digital archive of memo books stands at 400, with a goal of adding
an additional 100 each month. And with more and more publicity, Aaron’s
collection continues to grow.
“Now people are seeing the
website and then sending them in. They send them in, we scan them and then send
them back,” he says. “We have people donating them with notes like ‘From the
estate of …’ We have a lot of those up there. Jim and I decided we were just
going to show so many, thinking there are only so many years, only so many
companies, but they keep coming in, older and weirder.” FC
For more information and
to submit memo books: Aaron Draplin, 107
SE Washington St., Unit No. 540, Portland, OR 97214; email: Draplin@draplin.com; Field Notes Brand.
Beth Beavers is the associate editor at Farm Collector and Gas Engine Magazine. Contact her by email atbbeavers@ogdenpubs.comor find her onGoogle+.