Little pretty picture books for children in Georgian Britain and America

"Ev'ry lady in this land

Has twenty nails upon each hand

Five and twenty on hands and feet

And this is is true without deceit"'

(Punctuation Personified, 1824)

The 18th century saw great developments in the use of pictures in books for children.  Generally these were crude but vigorous black and white woodcuts; many children's chapbooks in particular had these on every little page, with a short verse underneath.

Chapbooks, c.1800-1815
(Parker Collection Library of Birmingham)

However probably the most notable children's picture books produced in the 18th century were the type known as harlequinades, which are really early versions of movable or toy books.  Home-made lift up or flap books are known to have been popular as early as the mid 17th century in both Britain and America. The earliest were called Metamorphosis and show Adam and Eve, who for no known reason changes into a mermaid on lifting the lower flap.  Cain and Abel follow, then a lion, which becomes a griffin, which becomes a great bird carrying off a baby.  The last two flaps show a miser hoarding wealth and a memento mori. The text was adapted from Benjamin Sands The Beginning, Progress and End of Man, 1650.

From an American Metamorphosis, Samuel Wood & Sons, 1814,
reprinted from a 17th century original
(University of Delaware)

 In the 1760s a London map and print seller, Robert Sayer, adapted this traditional flap book to show scenes from the story of Harlequin and Columbine.  The flap books he printed were sold either plain or delicately hand-coloured.   Elizabeth Newbery (wife to John Newbery's nephew Francis), John Wallis and other publishers quickly followed his lead, and harlequinades were popular in Britain and America until the 1820s.  There is an American version of the traditional Adam and Eve flap book published as late as the 1860s.

Two variations on these flap books was published by Stacey Grimaldi in the 1820s;  The Toilet, and A Suit of Armour for Youth.  These show pictures of toilet articles or pieces of armour with titles such as 'An universal and genuine Beautifier' .  Lift the flap picture and the moral is revealed:  'Good Humour'.  Each picture is followed by an improving poem from Nathaniel Cotton's Visions in Verse.

Grimaldi's Toilet, showing The Enchanting Mirror:  Humility
(Copy: Philadelphia Rare Books, Pinterest)








However the true for-runners of modern children's picture books first appeared n the early 1800s, published by John Newbery's equally adventurous successor, John Harris. The earliest, Old Mother Hubbard and her Dog, a verse rendering by Sarah Martin of a traditional tale was published in 1805 and its success encouraged the publisher to commission other little books to follow.  These picture books were tales in verse about 15cm high, illustrated with copperplates or wood engravings and sold either in plain black and white or, more usually, hand coloured, often quite beautifully, in delicate watercolours. There was a whole cottage industry, employing children in poor families, working from home hand-colouring these and other illustrations.
The stories were versions of traditional tales such as Cock Robin and Cinderella or fantasies such as The Butterfly's Ball,  written by a well known scholar, Mr. Roscoe, for his own children, and first published in The Gentlemen's Magazine.  Other popular titles were The Adventures of Seven Wonderful Old Women, Dame Trot and her Cat, and The Peacock's Party, one of the numerous imitations of The Butterfly's Ball.

Old Dame Trot and her Comical Cat c.1820
(Parker Collection, Library of Birmingham)

Some of the most delightful of those early picture books are the educational ones; rhyming versions of the rules of punctuation such as Punctuation Personified, or Pointing made Easy, by Mr. Stops which begins:

'Young Robert could read, but he gabbled so fast

And ran on with such speed,that all meaning he lost.

Till one morning he met Mr. Stops, by the way:

Who advised him to listen to what he should say.

Then ent'ring the house, he a riddle repeated,

To show, WITHOUT STOPS, how the ear may be cheated.

"Ev'ry lady in this land

Has twenty nails upon each hand

Five and twenty on hands and feet

And this is is true without deceit"'

(Punctuation Personified, 1824,

Parker Collection, Library of Birmingham)

Marmaduke Multiply's Mirthful Method of Making Minor Mathematicians was published shortly after the defeat of Napoleon, and for 'Twice 11 are 22' shows a tiny child on father's knee, brandishing a large glass full of something unsuitable, crying:  'We'll drink to the hero of Waterloo!'  He is probably pleased that nurse will no longer be able to terrify him at bedtime with threats of Old Boney.  (Marmaduke Multiply, 1816, Parker Collection, Library of Birmingham)

Marmaduke Multiply, 1816,
(Parker Collection, Library of Birmingham)

The series of toy books published by S&J Fuller at the Temple of Fancy, Rathbone Place, London around 1810 combined an improving moral story with cut-out figures.  The most well known are the History of Little Fanny, the History of Little Henry and Ellen or The Naughty Girl Reclaimed.  There are appropriate outfits for each episode in the character's life with a moveable head, and hats,  to slot into the costumes.  

The History of Little Fanny, 1810
(Theriaults The Dollmasters.com)

John Newbery: Instruction and Delight in the 18th century

'Giles Gingerbread, he lov'd Cream, Custard and Curds,

And Good Books so well, that he eat up his Words'.

(The Renowned History of Giles Gingerbread, Newbery, 1764

John Newbery was the most influential publisher of children's books in mid to late 18th century.
Catherine Hutton of Birmingham, born in 1756, remembered his little books with delight:
'I read all of Mr. Newbery's gilt books, as they were called...Christmas box, New Year's Gift, Goody Two Shoes & etc...I trembled for Bluebeard's wife when she was so naughty as to open the forbidden closet; and when I came to her kneeling at her husband's feet, he with his uplifted scimitar ready to strike, and sister Anne looking out from the window I could read no more.  I burst into tears, laid down the book, and exclaimed "Mama I never will be married."...it was many years before I dared venture to resume the tale, or know that Bluebeard's wife was saved.'
   (Catherine Hutton, Reminiscences of a gentlewoman of the last century...Letters of Catherine Hutton, ed. C.H. Beale, Birmingham 1891)

 Newbery was not the first to publish amusing yet instructive children's books but he was the first to make them a large enough part of his business for many copies to have survived and so he may be considered the first to make a commercial success of his publishing venture.  By the turn of the century he had been joined by others. One of Newbery's most important rivals was  John Marshall of 4 Aldermary Churchyard.  He published quite a range of work, from flimsy chapbook collections of nursery rhymes to attractive little stories like The Christmas Present by 'Solomon Sobersides'.  He also published 'infant libraries', complete sets of matching miniature books in little wooden bookcases.

Newbery knew well that the way to a child's heart is through its stomach and was a great believer in the reward system:
'As (Tommy Trip) rides through the town, he frequently stops at the doors to know how the little children do within; and if they are good and learn their book? and then leaves an apple, an orange, or a plumb-cake at the door, and away he gallops, again, tantivy, tantivy, tantivy.'
(The Lilliputian Magazine, Newbery, 1752, British Library 1387.9.5)
He also used the edible alphabet with great success in the story of Giles Gingerbread, 'the little boy who lived upon learning' :

'Giles Gingerbread, he lov'd Cream, Custard and Curds,

And Good Books so well, that he eat up his Words'.

The little boy's letters were cut out of gingerbread for him, and he learned them as he ate.
(The Renowned history of Giles Gingerbread, Newbery, 1764, S. Roscoe, John Newbery and his successors, 1973)

Giles Gingerbread. From a later, 1820 ed.pub. J. Kendrew, York,
(Osborn Collection, UCLA)

 Andrew Tuer says in The History of the Hornbook that gingerbread letters and gingerbread hornbooks became popular some time in the 18th century.  He quotes Matthew Prior's  poem Alma, Canto II, from Poems upon several occasions, 1721:

'To Master John the English maid

A Horn-book gives of Ginger-bread;

And that the Child may learn the better,

As he can name, he eats the letter...'

(Andrew Tuer, The History of the Hornbook, 1897 vol. 2)

Since Janeway's Token for Children, 1671,  the emphasis seems to have changed a bit from heavenly to earthly rewards for being a good boy or girl.  Little Goody Two Shoes is recommended as a mentor:

'From a state of rags and care

And having shoes but half a pair

Their fortune and their fame would fix

And gallop in a coach and six'

(The History of Little Goody Two-Shoes, Newbery, 1765)

History of Little Goody Two Shoes, 1768 ed. (Wikipedia)

This still represented the just reward of honesty and hard work, rather than the activities of a Fanny Hill or a Moll Flanders. Newbery's exemplary stories were firm supporters of traditional morality; 'She never told a lie in her life.  No, No!  she knew that was a naughty pau-pau Trick

 (Nurse Truelove's New-Year's Gift, Newbery, c.1770)

'See Virtue here, with Wealth and Glory crown'd

And all the busy Crowd admiring round;

While she to Church with pious Zeal reapirs

To hear the Sermon, and to say her prayers'.

(The history of Miss Polly Friendly, Newbery, Nurse Truelove...c.1770)

'All Boys and Girls, who are not dutiful and obedient to their Parents , never come to any Good, but are, as they ought to be, always neglected and despised.' 

(A Pretty Play-thing for Children of all Denominations, Newbery, c.1759, Roscoe op.cit. p.226))

John Newbery also sold other educational aids, and, good salesman that he was, promoted them through his story books:

 'When he has learnt the Roman letters, you may teach him the Italic letters in the same Manner, and then the Figures; Afterwards it will be proper to give him a Sett of the Squares sold at the Bible and Sun in St. Paul's Churchyard, by playing with which he will soon learn to read.'  

(A Little Lottery Book for Children, containing a new Method of playing them into a Knowledge of the letters, Figures etc.  Newbery c. 1765? Roscoe p, 171) 

The Little Lottery Book was an original reading aid with a picture on one side of the page and a letter on the other; the child learned his letters by sticking a pin through the picture into the letter which corresponded to it.  Few copies survived such rough treatment.  

Newbery's little books were just as popular in America.  There numerous pirated editions were published by Isiah Thomas of Worcester (Mass) the founder of the American Antiquarian Society, and by Mahlon Day of New York.  Isiah Thomas adopted Newbery's use of advertising, changing the wording to fit his own business and slightly Americanising the text:
'Why! he got all the little books by rote that are sold by Mr. Thomas in Worcester, when he was but a very little boy.  Then he never missed church...He is chosen Congressman already and yet he is not puffed up...'
(Alice Morse Earle, Child life in Colonial Days 1899)