Illustrations of familar objects.

The Royal Alphabet, page 13.

The chapbooks in this exhibit differ from their predecessors due to their numerous illustrations. The average chapbook had a single illustration on the front page. These chapbooks illustrate every letter of the alphabet, as well as, the stories and fables. In a time period when very little reading material was illustrated these chapbooks would have been an enticing novelty to a child. The illustrations would help to maintain the child’s attention as they would be images relatable to their day-to-day life.

In 1866, Thomas Hugo attributed the illustrations in two of these chapbooks to the renowned engraver Thomas Bewick. These chapbooks are A New Lottery Book and The Rise of Learning. Hugo’s attribution of Bewick as the illustrator of these chapbooks has been called into question by historians.