What would you expect to find if you went into a thrift store in California? Maybe some baking trays, clothes, furniture, or puzzles? If you were Margarete Miller- a collage artist, YouTube creator, and vintage paper lover- looking for collage material, what you would find would be an 1860s friendship album all the way from Waterford! This friendship album belonged to Maranda Stewart Hough, and has come home to Waterford in the Waterford Foundation Archives! This incredible journey back to Waterford and all the discoveries within the album is called the Maranda Project. Follow along here as we learn more about the album, Maranda and her family, and with it life here in Waterford and rural Virginia during the Civil War!
Follow along here as we document the album and learn more!
Check out this space for blog posts about the Maranda Project as continue into 2027 in documenting the album and learn more about the family connections within it!
What is a friendship album?
A friendship album was a popular tool of connection in the nineteenth century, especially for students and young adults. It is a precursor to the modern day yearbook and social media, where friends, families, and loved ones would write notes and mementos to each other. In a friendship album, you can typically find notes and letters for the person’s whose album it is, drawings and art, photos, intricate signature pages and calling cards, jokes, and references to pop culture of the day. In Maranda’s friendship album, you can find notes and letters to Maranda or ‘Ran’, jokes, quotes from Shakespeare and popular poetry, and an intricately designed signature page.
Who were Maranda Stewart and John W. Hough?
Maranda:
Maranda Stewart was born c.1843 to Ohio farmer Samuel Stewart and his wife Eliza. In the 1850s, the Stewarts moved to Fauquier County, Virginia, where Maranda’s father died in 1863. This left Maranda, her mother, and her siblings. She married John W. Hough of Waterford in 1862, even though she was not a Quaker. They eloped in Frederick, Maryland with the aid of a “hireling minister”.
John:
John W. Hough was born to Isaac Steer & Mary Jane Paxson Hough in 1838, the fourth of eleven children. The family lived two miles north of Waterford at Isaac’s woolen mill. The Houghs were Quakers (members of the Society of Friends). In early 1861, as Civil War loomed, John joined and paraded with a secessionist military company- Paxson’s Troop, 56th Virginia Militia, violating the Quaker’s antiwar principles. In July, after the Quaker meeting threatened him with disownment, he resigned from the militia company, asking “that friends may pass by my offense and continue me in membership.”
Maranda and John:
Maranda Stewart and John W. Hough eloped in 1862 in Frederick, Maryland with the aid of a “hireling minister”. Maranda was not a Quaker, and John apologized to the Meeting. By 1870, the two had left the Waterford area and were living in neighboring Fauquier County and had taken up farming, possibly on the Stewarts’ farm. In 1873, John W. Hough reported to Waterford’s Quaker meeting that he had joined another church and was no longer a Quaker. By then he and Maranda may have left Virginia.
In 1880, Maranda, John, and their five children were living in western Iowa, where John was a minister. They were still in Iowa in 1900, and John was employed as an insurance agent. By 1910, they had moved to a small town in Oklahoma. John died in 1911. Maranda passed away in 1914.
Finding the Friendship Album
Margarete Miller is a collage artist, storyteller, and collector who believes the things people leave behind still have stories to tell. In a thrift store book aisle, that curiosity led her to a weathered $1.99 friendship album begun in 1860 by seventeen-year-old Maranda Stewart, its pages filled with handwritten messages from the friends, family, teachers, and neighbors who made up her world. For Margarete, who has spent years working with vintage paper and ephemera, it was immediately clear that this was not something to take apart, but something to understand. A death announcement tucked inside eventually led her to Waterford, Virginia, beginning a 2,500-mile journey to uncover Maranda’s story and return the album to the community where it began. Along the way, Margarete invited her own creative community to add their names and hometowns to a new addendum inspired by Maranda’s original signature pages, carrying a 164-year-old tradition forward.
Check out this space in the near future for a digitized version of Margarete’s addendum and letter to Maranda- now in the Waterford Foundation Archives!
Learn more about Margarete’s find and her journey to Waterford on her YouTube page, videos linked below:
- “I Bought a 164-Year-Old Mystery for $1.99”. May 9 2026 . 6 minutes, 50 seconds.
- “I Almost Used This Antique Album for Junk Journaling- Then I Found Out Who She Was”. May 29 2026. 12 minutes, 27 seconds.
- Livestream: “Maranda’s Friendship Album- Collage with me”. June 28 2026. 59 minutes, 49 seconds.
- Livestream: “Maranda’s Friendship Album- Collage with me”. August 22, 2026. 31 minutes, 21 seconds.
Maranda Project in the News
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