While reading several archived Mudcat threads, I found some interesting examples of children's sampler rhymes (rhymes included on children's needlework embroidery).

Those examples prompted memories of children's autograph albums-the rhymes that children either remembered or made up and wrote in their classmate's books designed for that function. I recall when I graduated from highschool (in New Jersey in 1965) that my fellow graduates and other students declined the use of autograph albums as kids' stuff, but we still signed our names and sometimes added a rhyme in other graduates' year books.

I recall looking for autograph books a few years ago, as I thought they might be a nice end of year gift for the children my daughter taught who were graduating from elementary school. But the only books that were even somewhat similar were children's diaries (they were the same size as I recall autograph albums to be, and they had blank pages). But I chose not to purchase them because there weren't enough of them for sale. Besides which my daughter told me that children wouldn't know what to do with them, since they didn't know any autograph rhymes, and "kids hadn't done that" even when she graduated from school". It struck me then that she was right. I don't recall her or her siblings having autograph albums. I wondered how that could have escaped me. And now I wonder if children anywhere still remember or make up rhymes that they sign into autograph books.

That said, the purpose of this thread is to share examples of children's autograph album rhymes. This thread also provides opportunities to discuss the custom of signing autograph albums.

I've added the custom of writing epitaphs to this thread because it seems to me that there is a relationship between the custom of children making up or chosing rhymes they have learned for autograph albums and individuals' writing rhymes for their graveyard markers. Consequently, this thread also provides opportunities to share examples of & comments about epitaphs.

This thread also provides opportunities to share examples of sampler rhymes, though I didn't have enough room to add that to this thread's title.

I'll start this thread off by posting some examples of autograph album rhymes that I remember. I'll also post some autograph album rhymes and related sampler rhymes that I found on an archived Mudcat thread.

Thanks in advance for your participation in this thread.

-Azizi