Horn Books

We are home now, and working on a final blog post. But, before we do that there are few things we want to post about. One is the Horn Book collection at the Philadelphia Free Library.Hornbooks were the first form of children's books. The first known mention of the hornbook was in 1442 and they remained in use in the classroom through the nineteenth century. The simplest and most common hornbook was made of wood and shaped like a paddle. Often rope was threaded through a hole at the end of the handle so it could be worn around the neck or attached to the belt. A lesson, like the alphabet, a syllabary, or a a religious verse was written out on a piece of parchment (and later on paper). That was laid on the wood and covered with a transparent flattened cow's horn that was fastened to the wood paddle. The horn protected the lesson sheet and gives the hornbook its name. The PFL has over 100 examples of vintage horn books in manyshapes and sizes. You can also see the first image in our earlier post: http://wanderingbookartists.blogspot.com/2017/10/from-swarthmore-to-vassar.html