BETWEEN THE COVERS RARE BOOKS

B etween
the
C overs R are B ooks
112 Nicholson Rd, Gloucester City, NJ 08030
(856) 456-8008
Miss Virginia Kaulbach
[Scrapbook]: North Carolina Debutante’s Scrapbook
Concord, North Carolina: 1940-42
betweenthecovers.com
$950
Folio measuring 10" x 16". 68pp.
Screw bound scrapbook with
illustrated boards. Worn edges and
tiny tears else very good. A collection
of ephemera with captions, kept by
Miss Virginia Kaulbach of Concord,
North Carolina between 1940 and
1942. During this time Miss Kaulbach
was involved in debutante events.
On the first page of the scrapbook
there is a letter from 1940 from the
Terpsichorean Club inviting Virginia
to be presented at a Debutante Ball.
The letter reads, “the Terpsichorean
Club takes pleasure in informing you
that you have been selected to be
presented to North Carolina society
at the twentieth annual Debutante
Ball to be held in Raleigh, September
sixth and seventh.” It continues, “we
sincerely believe that this year we
are going to have the most elaborate
and successful Ball that we have ever
had.” Virginia collected debutante
items including newspaper clippings
announcing who was attending that
year’s ball, dried and pressed corsages,
and invitations. One calling card
for Mrs. Guy Moody Beaver has a
penciled in note reading, “stockings,”
because Virginia’s ball stockings were
gifted to her from the woman.
The album also features ephemera from friends who were attending colleges, clippings about the war, and telegrams.
She saved notes and clippings of young men, as well as birthday messages from friends. Virginia includes pins
from Davidson College, the Citadel, and Duke University as well as cards, letters, clippings, invitations, programs,
Christmas labels, souvenir napkins, and menus. One sarcastic telegram from a young man reads, “I take it failure to
reply to letter implies a negative to the invitation. Thanks for any thought you might have given letter,” to which
Virginia has written “but I went!” She also kept up with who her friends were marrying and the scrapbook includes
numerous clippings about who’s marrying who. Many of the pages have labels from cigarettes and beer bottles with
captions that read, “cigarettes Jim gave me before I left,” and “Polly, Pat and I dinner and movies.” Virginia was also
involved with the American National Red Cross, a card here documents her completion of the senior course in life
saving and water safety. A final telegram to Virginia from “Joe” reads, “expecting you and Betty for bigger and better
party this weekend.”
An extensive collection of ephemera detailing the social life and friendships of a southern debutante in the 1940s.
[BTC#404708]