The Working Narratives
Imagination, Narrative & Literacy

In 1982, a shoebox, wrapped in newspapers,
was found on a dusty closet shelf in a 27 room house
in Indiana. It contained "an archive of tiny objects,"
the reading materials Jane Johnson, a vicar's wife, had
hand-made for her children over two hundred years earlier.

This archaelogical find of treasures that had made
their way from England to America, transformed the way
scholars looked at both literacy education and at how
children were perceived within the family and within
society during the early seventeen hundreds.

 

The paper, "Jane Johnson's Shoebox, Literacy Ephemera and Imaginative Teaching Strategies in the 1700s," presented at the 7th International Conference on Imagination and Education in Vancouver, July, 2009, will soon be available on this site.

Photos:
Below: A book Jane made for her son George William in 1745.
A. Inscription from mama.
B. Letter groups.
Right above: A small box of word chips Jane used in literacy games.
Right: An alphabet mobile that would have been hung up
in the family room where Jane and her children played and studied.
Right below: A social comment card Jane made to help
her children understand the society around them.

 

A. B.