Among the more interesting and significant keys to social history is the literature produced for children, with its obviously stated rules for conduct. The more than seven thousand volumes of late 18th to early 20th century children's books in the Department may not tell us how our ancestors acted but they reveal clearly how they wished their children to act and what they wished their children to believe. Relatively few of these are textbooks but many of them are educational, the enlightening works to be read at home after school. Cautionary tales far less amusing than Belloc's Cautionary Verses were read (and scribbled in) by early 19th-century children, and examples of piety to rival the medieval saints were offered as models of conduct--one poor wight lived a life of sin and expired in affecting repentance at the tender age of four. Fortunately for the children the passage of time brought them more entertaining fare: George Macdonald, the rousing adventures of G. A. Henty, E. Nesbit's unsurpassable fancies, and Arthur Ransome's tales of what must be the most fortunate children who ever lived. The collection (founded in 1953, and built almost entirely by gift) does not attempt to furnish the reader with the great classics of children's literature although it does include most of the Kate Greenaway books and about half of Beatrix Potter; it presents the common fare and offers great scope for research in the history of education as well as in literature and social history.
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Collections Librarian - Richard W. Clement, 785/864-4334 rclement@ku.edu Department of Special Collections, Kenneth Spencer Research Library, The University of Kansas Lawrence, KS 66045-7616 Phone: 785/864-4334 Fax: 785/864-5803 |
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