image id: 480057
Anne Wagner
Friendship Album
Liverpool, [1795–1834]
NYPL, The Carl H. Pforzheimer Collection of Shelley and His Circle
Anne Wagner’s friendship
album is the product of decades and employs
a variety of media: pen and ink; watercolor; pencil sketches; and collage,
to say nothing of the fact that it unites images and words in a seamless whole.
The genre of friendship album, like its descendant, the autograph album, requires
collaboration: a friendship album by one person is an oxymoron. Anne Wagner
must have been a persuasive or much beloved friend, daughter, niece, and sister,
or all of these, since much effort went into making this album.
The entire Friendship Album has been digitized and may be viewed on NYPL’s
Digital Gallery.
