Scrapbooking
The "invention" of today's scrapbooks is most often attributed to Marielen Christensen, who started a scrapbooking company called Keeping Memories Alive. In 1976, she began making creative pages to put her family photos on. She then put them in sheet protectors and three ring binders. By 1980 she had made over 50 albums and was asked to display them at The World Conference on Records in Salt Lake City.
Interest in "memory books" as Christensen had called them was immediate and she began teaching classes and giving seminars on creating them. For members of the Church creating memory books seemed to come naturally. This is because the Church stresses the importance of family and family history, so scrapbooking became another way to do preserve family stories and memories.
In 1981 Marielen and her husband wrote the first how-to book on scrapbooking and opened the first scrapbooking supply store in Spanish Fork, Utah. By 1994, demand for their products was so high that they had to move to a larger location. Keeping Memories Alive was also the first company to launch a scrapbook Internet site. Scrapbooks.com is now one of the most well-known websites in the industry.
Marielen has received the Outstanding Achievements Award from Creating Keepsakes Magazine for paving the way in the industry. Because scrapbooking started with Mormons, there are numerous stores and websites that carry scrapbook supplies made specifically for Mormons and Mormon Culture. Many of these stores include such things as pages and quotes for missionaries, supplies to create pages for baptisms, temple weddings, and other parts of Mormon life.
The Western part of the United States still seems to have the highest percentage of scrapbookers. This is most likely because of the large number of Mormons that live in the area.
