WGST 691-50/HIST 611-50: History Of American Childhood: Essay #1

Read one complete issue of a nineteenth-century children’s periodical available via UofL Libraries databases and write an essay (5-7 pages) in which you analyze the periodical in terms of any theme we have discussed thus far (such as race, religion, class, region, slavery, urbanization, gender, institutions).  Your ONLY secondary source reference for the paper is Huck’s Raft and any Panopto lectures that prove useful to you. You MUST refer to course material in this essay. Refer to text by specific page number and to lecture by week. If the periodical you choose is very short, read more than one issue – because you need to have enough material for you to analyze the periodical in terms of a theme.

Possible periodicals include: Youth’s Companion, Youth’s Companion and Sabbath School Recorder, Boys and Girls Magazine, Child’s Friend, Child’s Friend and Youth’s Magazine, Child’s Friend and Family Magazine, Our Young Folks, St. Nicholas. All but Our Young Folks (1865) and St. Nicholas (1873) are early nineteenth-century publications.

UofL has a 19^th-century periodical collection that includes many children’s periodicals. Consult the reference librarians (first floor) and the media and microforms librarians (second floor) of Ekstrom for other possibilities. The periodicals mentioned can be located through University Libraries.

To access complete issues of 19^th-century periodicals:

1. Go to UofL library's main page (library.louisville.edu) and select databases A-Z, which is on the left side of the page.
2. Go to P, and select ProQuest Direct. There are several ProQuest possibilities, so make sure you go to Proquest Direct.
3. In ProQuest Direct, there are selections on the top, (Basic Search, Advanced, Publications, Browse). Select Publications.
4. Type in "children's literature" and in the drop-down box on the right, select "in subject."
5. You will find a list of over 20 children's periodicals with the dates of their publication.