HoB_ABCs

Title Hornbook C.1700

Brief description 24 upper case letters of the alphabet, in ruled compartments. J and U are omitted.

Full description From the sixteenth to nineteenth centuries, many children became acquainted with their letters through hornbooks. A hornbook is shaped like a paddle with a manuscript leaf fastened to wood or leather and covered in a layer of horn for protection.

On this eighteenth century hornbook, 24 letters of the alphabet have been inscribed by a parent, schoolmaster or other caretaker. J and U are omitted from the alphabet in this example because in Tudor times, the letters I and J were the same, as well as U and V.

The handle is equipped with a sturdy hole for a string to attach the hornbook to the child's belt, girdle or as a necklace. The leather frame that fastens the horn securely to the wooded paddle is worn and shiny from regular use. The back of the item is relatively unscathed except for a few bumps and markings in the wood from banging into other objects. The leather is cracked but has been smoothed with age and use.

In the top, left corner, the leather has pulled away from the wood. The gap clearly shows the layer of horn and the manuscript leaf. There is a stain in the top, left corner of the manuscript leaf that could have been caused by an early separation of wood and leather when the item was still in use.

The horn is very yellow with age. It is clear enough to see the letters but there are a few small black or white speckled dots that marring the surface. There are also light smudges or scratches on the horn from side to side in the middle of the viewing panel, perhaps from an attempt to clean the center of the viewing panel. The edges of the horn are darker with dirt. Despite some wear and tear, there is no exceptionally bad damage.

Literacy One of the first steps to literacy is to recognize the letters of the alphabet. Children in the early 1700s were often given a hornbook during their young childhood. The physicality of the hornbooks created a close relationship between the child and the alphabet.

Unlike other hornbooks of this era, this example only includes the alphabet (omitting J and U). The hornbook was a common tool for children in the 1700s to learn their alphabet before attending school. In fact, it was highly regarded in early America as the basis of learning.

Many early schools used these hornbooks as early tools to teach literacy. Thus, the child's introduction to literacy was limited in this case to the introduction of letters and not, as in other cases, to Our Lord's Prayer, or other basic instruction. The internalization of the alphabet is crucial training; however, true literacy is derived from an ability to arrange the letters of the alphabet into sounds and words.

Childhood Eighteenth century children would likely use a hornbook to learn the alphabet. This eighteenth century hornbook features 24 letters of the alphabet are inscribed on the document for the child to memorize, with J and U omitted, and a hole in the handle for a cord to attach the object to a child.

The cord that attaches the hornbook to the child actually transforms the teaching tool into an intimate and necessary addition to the child's wardrobe. Moreover, this feature fosters an intensely personal relationship between the hornbook and the child through this physical connection. The shape is convenient for a child to hold and relatively indestructible. The leather frame that fastens the horn securely to the wooded paddle is worn and shiny from regular use.

The children who used this hornbook likely spent many hours holding the handle and touching the shape of the letters through the horn layer until the shapes became familiar to them. These movements leave noticeable wear marks upon this hornbook. Moreover, the decision to include only the alphabet on the document, as opposed to numerals or the Lord's Prayer, demonstrates that the user likely was a young child who has passed through the first perilous years of life. The child is old enough to warrant some education, yet they are expected to learn other steps to literacy using other means.

Iconography In American colonial times, paper was expensive. Not every child has the luxury of practicing their letters on stacks of paper that can easily be thrown away. Instead, many were provided with durable hornbooks that were designed to help the young memorize their letters. It was important to create a durable literacy tool because the material was expensive and the object needed to last from child to child. The sturdiness of the hornbook also indicates that a child's way of life was rough and lacking in possessions.

The concept of childhood had not yet fully emerged. As a result, children were not coddled and were not given instruction unless they were lucky enough to survive their infancy. If they did survive, they were treated like small adults and they were expected to learn quickly. The hornbook provided to these young children was the first step in pushing them to become literate.

In early American history, the only reason that children were to become literate was so that they can improve upon their relationship with God and progress in their moral behavior. Moreover, hornbooks, like this one, lacked illustrations. They were hardly a source of amusement. They served as a practical tool that had little room for frivolities.

Yet, as the child become familiar with their letters in the mid-eighteenth century to the nineteenth century, they were able to find amusement in other texts. As the demand for further amusement increased and material like paper became less expensive, battledores replaced the function of the hornbook and the view of children's literacy shifted once more.

Production Publishing Hornbooks were not published in the traditional sense. Hornbooks were first fashioned in Europe during the medieval periods, with the oldest known example created in England at approximately 1450.

It is difficult to determine which hornbooks were brought from England or created in America but it is certain that they were a favorite method of teaching the letters in Colonial America from the 17th-19th centuries.

This example is an American hornbook. It was handmade and handwritten with a specific child or children in mind. As one child learns their letters sufficiently, the hornbook is passed to another young child until they also firmly master the alphabet. Hornbooks remained an important step for a child's education until well into the eighteenth century, where paper became more available for common individuals and books were published similar to the models in place today.