Border State Blues: A Civil War Scrapbook in Baltimore

Abstract

The process of writing this paper taught me how research is driven by curiosity. I was introduced to this series of Civil War scrapbooks a year before I wrote this paper for a public history seminar, and my first inquiries into the context and content of the scrapbooks led me to more questions about the circumstances and beliefs of the family that created them, as well as the tradition of scrapbooking itself. I realized that the newspaper clippings in the scrapbook were not going to give me the answers that I wanted; I would need to learn more about Baltimore during the Civil War and follow the clues the primary sources gave me to find out more. The only answers I would get were the ones that I found for myself. My public history class gave me the perfect chance to dig deeper into the context and content of these scrapbooks in order to understand their larger historical significance. This project gave me the opportunity to use my research skills to solve an intriguing mystery.