Commonplace books are collections of quotes, images, and ideas valued by an individual. Early on, men used commonplace books for collecting philosophical or theological quotes, but by the nineteenth century women used them to establish friendships. Nineteenth-century Americans often exchanged their commonplace books and wrote quotes that meant a lot to them or that they hoped would mean something to the person in whose book they wrote. In this sense, commonplace books were much like an early version of Facebook.
Sarah Ann Hays Mordecai’s commonplace book is in the collection at AJHS.
