[480] Childhood From Page to Page In MTSU Library Book Display

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: May 20, 2010
EDITORIAL CONTACT: Gina Logue, 615-898-5081

CHILDHOOD FROM PAGE TO PAGE IN MTSU LIBRARY BOOK DISPLAY
“Books and Children in 19th Century” Exhibit Shows Off Vintage Kids’ Books

(MURFREESBORO) – Once upon a time, in an era long, long ago, before cell phones, PDAs and iPods occupied children’s time, there were books—all kinds of books. There were schoolbooks, pop-up books and elegant storybooks with pretty pictures. Some of these books are on display through the summer (Classes for the fall 2010 semester begin Aug. 28.) at the James E. Walker Library on the MTSU campus.
“Books and Children in the 19th Century: A Small Portrait” is the theme of the exhibit, which is free and open to the public in the Special Collections area on the library’s fourth floor. The purpose is to show the variety of ways children and the adults around them engaged with books in the 1800s and early 1900s.
The works available for viewing are indicative of the children’s book as an object of moral and educational value. The idea behind the books is to teach values and build character. Entertainment techniques are employed strictly to attract the children and hold their interest.
Highlights include several movable books, which are books that contain text or illustrations that the child can manipulate. Pop-up books are one type of movable book. Many items in the display have never been exhibited previously.
Something New for Little Folk by Clifton Bingham with illustrations by A.E. Jackson (1900) features kaleidoscopic volvelles, which are wheels that change the images as the reader pulls ribbons on the book.
Lothar Meggendorfer’s Affentheater (1890) is a different kind of movable book. It folds out into a 12-section panorama that forms a continuous pictorial scene when opened, revealing colorful illustrations of circus animals.
Another Meggendorfer work, All Alive: A Movable Toybook (1897), features eight hand-colored lithographed plates, each with moving parts operated with levers. The reader can use these to move a watchdog, ducks on a pond, a flock of sheep, a goat with a cat and rabbits, a stag, an owl, a wagoner’s horse and a cow shed.
Dean’s New Book of Dissolving Views (1860) by Thomas Dean was inspired by classical paintings. Pulling tabs that stick out of the top and bottom of each page can change the picture on the page—for example, from day to night or from summer to winter.


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Using toys to market other products to children is nothing new, as Kellogg’s Junglebook (1909) proves. Once again, beautiful colors and friendly-looking animals are the attractions. The reader can change the animals’ wardrobes by manipulating tabs. The illustrations, with captions in rhyming verse, show the animals dancing, singing, attending school, blowing bubbles and doing other fun things.
The plug for Kellogg’s Corn Flakes is on the back cover of Kellogg’s Junglebook. It reads, “To market, to market, jiggedy jog,/Bring back corn flakes made by Kellogg!/Crispy and brown and good as can be:/I love them-you’ll love them-‘nother helping, that’s me!
The Special Collections area is open from 8 a.m.-4:30 p.m. Monday-Friday. For more information about the 19th century children’s book display, call 615-904-8501.


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ATTENTION, MEDIA: For color jpegs of items in the “Books and Children in the 19th Century: A Small Portrait” exhibit, contact Gina Logue in the MTSU Office of News and Public Affairs at 615-898-5081 or gklogue@mtsu.edu.



With three Nobel Prize winners among its alumni and former faculty, Middle Tennessee State University confers master’s degrees in 10 areas, the Specialist in Education degree, the Doctor of Arts degree and the Doctor of Philosophy degree. MTSU is ranked among the top 100 public universities in the nation in the Forbes “America’s Best Colleges” 2009 survey.