(Re)Collecting the Self: Women Musicians’ Scrapbooks in Interwar France, from Lucette Descaves to Simone Plé

This article analyses the scrapbooks made by two women musicians during the interwar in Paris: Lucette Descaves (1906-1993) and Simone Plé (1897-1986). Through the investigation of this a priori illegitimate (re)collection—gathering press-clippings and ephemera—this article argues for its reevaluation as a fully fledged autobiographical (Descaves) and historical (Plé) writing practice. More broadly, this study offers a reflection on the connections between objects produced by women and those traditionally deemed legitimate by historiography to provide sources for individual and collective music histories.