HoB_ABCs

Title The Sunday ABC

Brief description [2] leaves, [8] leaves of plates : col. ill.

Full description This large, brightly colored bible alphabet book could be used at a young reading level. Its size and colors would aid in handling and also in holding the attention of a younger child, and the linen-mounted pages are sturdier than thin paper, like that employed in chapbooks. The cover is also of a thicker make than the interior pages (similar to a light cardstock). The book explores a combination of Biblical stories and modern Christian ideals, such as faith and innocence.

Literacy This Sunday A.B.C. is intended for someone beginning to just learn their alphabet. The letters are the focus of the book alongside the illustrations, because no words or phrases or poems are included on the pages. There are no words for readers to spell or sound out: "A is for Abraham," but this is only written out on the key on the interior cover, not meant to be referenced unless necessary. Upper and lower case letters are printed in large, bold type, standing out easily from the illustrations and large enough for a child to trace with a finger. The use of the religious theme may reflect the early Protestant belief in the importance of literacy as a path to a personal relationship with God and the ability to personally read the Bible.

Childhood A key to each scene is included on the interior front cover, with an explanation for why the captions are excluded: "The child should be required to name the objects in this Alphabet, without seeing the Key, which can be referred to, if necessary. By this means a knowledge of objects, and the amusement of using his own observation, will be obtained." Clearly the child who owned this book would be expected to know very well his or her biblical stories and traditions, or to use the book to improve his or her study on such matters. Children are portrayed in many of the present-day images, dressed tidily and on their way to church or playing politely among themselves. There is a heavy emphasis on the unity of family.

Iconography The dominant cultural iconography in this alphabet book centers around religion. Biblical stories, such as that of Abraham and David, are combined with a championing of expected Christian behavior, such as innocence, faith, and kindness, and other Christian cultural nouns, such as the Bible, church, and hymns. This is evident from the list of vocabulary words chosen (on the interior front and back covers), and in a more subtle way in how the illustrations portray the people in each piece of art. They all appear to be clean, well-dressed, happy, upper-middle class people, with the subtle indication that if the readers also attend church and are properly evangelistic, they perhaps can be the same. The amount of biblical knowledge the recipient would be expected to know or cultivate is impressive and makes the most significant impression from a first examination of the book.

Production The Sunday A.B.C. was published by Frederick Warne & Co., a British publishing firm that was made most famous by its illustrated children's books. They featured such well-known authors and artists as Beatrix Potter and Kate Greenaway. The Sunday A.B.C. is one of the small number of books in the collection printed on linen rather than paper. Linen pages make the book sturdier in comparison to paper, though the production was also more expensive. At its original printing, the linen version of the book would have been approximately twice as expensive as the paper edition. The interior sides of the front cover and back cover are printed with plain black text, most likely letterpress, but the interior pages are printed with beautiful, full-color illustrations in chromolithography. The chromolithography process involves a separate image on stone for each color involved in the print. This produced much more detailed and richly and precisely colored images than previous print technologies, such as stencil-colored relief prints. While the book is much larger than a chapbook or other "pocket-sized" text, it is still a stitched, single-signature production, relatively easy to assemble once printed. The pages are only printed on one side, which from the linen examples in this collection appears to be typical of the production. In this book, the letters of the alphabet are part of the illustrations, rather than a separate process.