I can't help to invent whole stories about things like this, and this one both warms and breaks my heart. I can't quite tell from the cover whether this belonged to Fern, or Fern was the name of her school, or her name was D. Fern--at any rate, certainly some young girl, perhaps in absence of a fancier option, determined to make her own autograph book, presumably to capture the signatures of her school friends. She filled each and every page with a hopeful scroll, all in wait of signatures, and all lovingly bordered with flowers and leaves and birds and flourishes and "forget me nots". But only two friends ever signed it! I don't really know if this was because she had few friends or not, but the thought of all of this effort in anticipation of a filled book never to be realized is about the most touching thing I can imagine, and makes me feel very very tenderly toward this little book.
4 7/8" x 2 5/8". Cover plus 10 inside pages, each filled front and back. There is a vertical fold to the cover and a few pages, a few bent corners inside, and small stains and smears here. The first several page spreads are colored in crayon, then later pages are pencil plus black ink. I have not documented every page but photos give a very good sense. Late 19th/early 20th century I believe.
