HoB_ABCs

Title The Railroad Alphabet

Brief description [8] leaves : col. ill.

Full description This is a book for a reader early in learning the alphabet and letters: it is large, brightly colored, and simple words rather than phrases or rhymes are used to demonstrate each letter. The subjects of the illustrations are clearly captioned. The words chosen are not easy, one-syllable words: "King's Cross" and "Xcursion" are two examples of the complexity of the vocabulary. The pictures are large and the letters are boxed separately on the upper portion of each page, which causes some separation between words and images. As such, the image may represent only one letter of the 3-4 letters included per page. The industrial theme of the book, along with the relatively late nineteenth-century date reflects the railroads that had become prevalent by the time period. Images of occupations associated with the burgeoning industry, as conductors and other railroad employees, can be found throughout the volume.

Literacy The Railroad Alphabet includes words or word phrases in its approach to teaching literacy, rather than simple letters or more complicated rhyming couplets used in other books. This book suggests that literacy could be professionally useful. The illustrations in the railroad alphabet depict train employees in smart uniforms and include the names of stations (such as King's Cross). This may be taken to subtly suggest that literacy would be a necessary skill for conductors and other railroad employees.

Childhood There are few representations of children in The Railroad Alphabet, as the majority of the images focus on aspects of industrial technology. The few instances in which children are present, they are often part of a larger group of passengers and a passive part of the background rather than active participants in a scene. They are well-dressed members of a class wealthy enough to travel by rail, accompanied by a fair-sized pile of luggage that waits alongside the train.

Iconography The Railroad Alphabet emphasizes the industrial changes of the nineteenth century, specifically, travel by railroad. The vocabulary emphasizes this with words like engine, danger signal, junction, night train, and telegraph. The majority of the large, colorful images portray illustrations of trains, usually stopped at a station and pictured with iconic puffs of white smoke and piles of luggage. The scenery tends towards the urban rather than the pastoral, with railroad tracks, brick walls, and arched glass windows. This suggests a world for the comfortably wealthy, with the passengers neatly dressed in expensive clothing of the period, such as top hats.

Production The Railroad Alphabet is the first book in a bound serial. These books were originally individually published and later collected together: both the front and back covers of the railroad alphabet are included. Similarly to The Sunday A.B.C. also in the collection, the book is a sturdy, linen-printed, brightly-colored object with printing on only one side of the sheets. The letters of the alphabet (and the vocabulary words they represent) are integrated into the full-page illustrations, rather than being separated. The printing process is chromolithographic in nature, with a high number of colors applied precisely to each image.