c. 1870

The Memorizing and The Reading and Writing Hour

During the Age of Enlightenment in the eighteenth-century enormous strides were made in the children's world of learning. By 1870, the repertoire of printed sheets used to teach children to read and write had expanded into numerous subjects such as plants, animals, geography, and nationalities. Favorites included sheets of vignettes with captions, like this example, which served to impart moral precepts, and stand as the precursors to today's comic strips.