The Lottery Directions.

A New Lottery Book, page 15.

These directions for a lottery game, created to help a child learn the letters of the alphabet, deserve special attention. The instructions are located on page fifteen of A New Lottery Book.

The directions are worded to be read by a parent or guardian. These 1819 directions replicate the instructions printed in a 1767 chapbook by John Newberry. Of interest, the parent is instructed to start teaching the alphabet as soon as the child can speak.

The lottery game is for the child to insert a pin between the pages of the closed chapbook, selecting a page, and then pinning down the unseen letter. Once the letter is identified the child would learn that letter. Investigation of this chapbook has identified a small pin hole through the letter “z”. Whether this hole in the page was created by a child “pinning” this chapbook is mere speculation.

Jan Steen, A School for Boys and Girls (detail). 1670, Oil on canvas, 81.7 x 108.6 cm. National Galleries of Scotland, Edinburgh. From National Galleries of Scotland, https://www.nationalgalleries.org/art-and-artists/5676/school-boys-and-girls 

“Pinning” a letter in a book is not a new technique for teaching the alphabet to a child. Within the painting “A School for Boys and Girls”, Jan Steen illustrates this teaching technique. A detail of this painting shows the girl in the red sleeves “pinning” a page in a book. This painting predates A New Lottery Book by almost 150 years.