While perusing a flea market in Brooklyn one day, travel writer Luke J. Spencer came across a charming scrapbook with an Art Deco–style cover. But when he opened it, he found something even more incredible.
Spencer is no stranger to finding fascinating snippets of history. We took a look at some of the ways he embellishes vintage envelopes from World War II–era letters and collects all kinds of vintage items, especially letters, from generations past.
This scrapbook was a fantastic find. It showed the journey and career of a particular young woman, one Lotta June Miller, who left her home in Spokane, WA, at age of 28 to start her career as a theater director on the other side of the country.
The scrapbook, arranged by Miller herself, shows us a portion of her life as she chose to remember it, full of photos of friends, notes from colleagues, and more.
Someone like Miller might not have made history or become famous, but she was a real person, just like any of us, with a job, a social life, and a crafty hobby.
Looking back at her life shows us how times have changed, but also how making memories, taking photos, and collecting your life into a story are things people have loved doing for generations.
Read on to see where Miller's adventures took her, and let us know if you've ever made a scrapbook in the comments!
[H/T: MessyNessyChic]
Luke J. Spencer came across this 1930s-era scrapbook in a flea market in Brooklyn, NY.
Opening it up, he found an incredible stash of photos, letters, and keepsakes belonging to a young woman named Lotta June Miller.
Lotta June Miller, pictured here, was born in 1911.
In 1939, at the age of 28, she boarded a train from Spokane, WA, to California — the town of California, PA, that is.
But she didn't go directly.
Instead, she planned a four-day trip that would take her to Chicago, New York, and Pittsburgh before ending up in California, PA, where she'd gotten a job as a theater director at the State Teachers College there.
Her train was known as the Empire Builder, and followed parts of explorers Lewis and Clark's original trails through the Louisiana Purchase area.
She also carried a note from a member of the Washington State Congress, Charles H. Leavy, which requested that she be shown "every courtesy."
In New York, she stopped and snapped some photos at the 1939 World's Fair, held in Flushing, Queens.
This World's Fair was where people got their first glimpses of television, air-conditioning, and fax machines.
When she finally reached the College, she immediately started putting together a production of You Can't Take It with You, which opened about six weeks after she arrived.
Her scrapbook includes photos of the students rehearsing, taken from the local paper.
As well as photos of the actors, including a cat named Harpo.
Miller also got the cast and crew (or "staff") to sign her program.
After You Can't Take It With You, she went on to direct High Tor, and got some autographs for that production, as well.
And her work also seems to have caught the attention of a young man named Hector. He sent her this note with something "to wear as you celebrate the success of your play."
We don't know what he sent her to wear, sadly, but he was eager to see her!
Hector shows up a few times in Miller's scrapbook, like here in this Western Union telegram, wishing her a recovery and congratulations on another play.
But even if Hector wasn't around, Miller seems to have led an active social life, as evidenced by this collection of Valentine's Day cards, including one with real aspirin encased inside!
Hector also sent her a Valentine, and gives her the nickname "Betty Boop." And we can see the resemblance!
She also attended a masked ball at a hotel…
…and played bridge with friends.
Her friends also show up in photos in the scrapbook.
She also took a trip back to New York at some point, on the now-defunct Trans World Airlines. Her ticket cost $37.80.
Not much else is known about her, other than that she ended up marrying a man named Dr. Harrison Merrill, who worked at a top-secret government lab in New Jersey, and that somehow her scrapbook ended up in Brooklyn. As for Hector, he's lost to history.
This amazing slice of history is fascinating, and we're lucky that Spencer was able to find it in that flea market!
SHARE Lotta June Miller's story with someone who loves antique shopping, and let us know what kinds of finds you've made!
