Alphabet Chapbook Prints

Angela Voulangas and Doug Clouse

B. de B. is a collection of historically-based alphabet prints. They are inspired by nineteenth-century British children’s educational chapbooks, pamphlets of rhymes, folklore, and news that were sold on the street for pennies.

We created this series with images and letters from a large, antique scrapbook made in England in the 1830s, which we bought a few years ago. We scanned, cleaned up, and recombined numerous images and letters to make a full alphabet (and then some). The prints were exhibited at the Type Directors Club and published in House Beautiful magazine.

"B. de B. Russell Juvenile Album" stamped onto the cover led us to trace its long ago owner Blois de Blois Russell, a young man of privilege with a strikingly unusual name. He attended Oxford, rowed crew, and died at 22.

The original scrapbook