New Book | The Education of Things
From the University of Massachusetts Press:
Elizabeth Massa Hoiem, The Education of Things: Mechanical Literacy in British Children’s Literature, 1762–1860 (Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 2024), 328 pages, ISBN: 978-1625347565 (hardback), $99 / ISBN: 978-1625347558 (paperback), $31.
Winner of the 2025 Justin G. Schiller Prize for Bibliographical Work on Children’s Books from The Bibliographical Society of America
By the close of the eighteenth century, learning to read and write became closely associated with learning about the material world, and a vast array of games and books from the era taught children how to comprehend the physical world of ‘things’. Examining a diverse archive of popular science books, primers, grammars, toys, manufacturing books, automata, and literature from Maria Edgeworth, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, and Anna Letitia Barbauld, The Education of Things attests that material culture has long been central to children’s literature. Elizabeth Massa Hoiem argues that the combination of reading and writing with manual tinkering and scientific observation promoted in late eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century Britain produced new forms of ‘mechanical literacy’, competencies that were essential in an industrial era. As work was repositioned as play, wealthy children were encouraged to do tasks in the classroom that poor children performed for wages, while working-class children honed skills that would be crucial to their social advancement as adults.
Elizabeth Massa Hoiem is assistant professor in the School of Information Sciences at University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.
c o n t e n t s
List of Illustrations
Preface
Introduction
1 What Children Grasp: The Tangible Properties of Objects
2 Moving Bodies: Manual Labor and Children’s Play in Mechanical Philosophy Books
3 ‘The Empire of Man over Material Things’: Children’s Books on Manufacturing and Trade
4 Self-Governing Machines: Automata and Autonomy in Maria Edgeworth’s Fiction
5 ‘Knowledge That Shall Be Power in Their Hands’: Radical Grammars for Working-Class Readers
Conclusion: William Lovett’s Case of Moveable Type
Notes
Index
London’s Treasure House Fair, 2025
Edmund Joy, ‘Mr. Joy’s Surprise’ (child’s wardrobe in the form of a doll’s house), 1709, 66 × 58 × 26 inches (Thomas Coulborn & Sons Ltd, UK). A similar piece, also made by Edmund Joy and dated 1712, is part of the V&A collection. The façades of both houses bear a considerable resemblance to Kew Palace in West London, a building formerly known as ‘The Dutch House’.
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From the press release:
The Treasure House Fair
Royal Hospital Chelsea, London, 26 June — 1 July 2025
Next month, Treasure House Fair returns to the historic Royal Hospital Chelsea for a festival of art and culture. Taking place from 26th June until 1st July, London’s much anticipated summer art fair will bring together 70 internationally renowned exhibitors in the fields of fine art, furniture, jewellery, watches, design, and classic cars. From a 50,000-year-old mammoth tusk and a childhood drawing by His Majesty King Charles III to one of the last surviving Union flags of the Battle of Trafalgar and masterpieces by titans of art history, Treasure House Fair reflects the new eclecticism of today’s collectors.
A ‘treasure house’ of the rare and the beautiful, the historic and the cutting-edge, the handpicked works and objects to go on view—all vetted by independent experts—also boasts prestigious provenance, from John Paul Getty to legendary Parisian art dealer Ambroise Vollard. Alongside the exhibitors’ presentations, the fair will stage a series of talks and special displays, including a landmark exhibition on the Bugatti family, a thought-provoking Sculpture Walk and a room at London’s annual showhouse WOW!house, in collaboration with acclaimed British decorator Daniel Slowik.
Thomas Hudson, Portrait of a Finely Dressed Gentleman, ca. 1750, oil on canvas, 50 × 40 inches (Philip Mould & Company, London).
Harry Van der Hoorn, co-founder of the Treasure House Fair and owner of the leading stand building company Stabilo said: “We are proud to carry the baton of our forebears and be part of the long tradition of summer fairs in London. With over a third of international exhibitors and a quarter of newcomers, this third edition corroborates the importance of London for the global trade and the strength of its local market.”
Thomas Woodham-Smith, director and co-founder said: “We like to think of ourselves as a festival rather than an art fair. People come to enjoy the art, meet up and spend time at the restaurant and the bar. It is altogether a social, sybaritic and scholarly experience which in just two years, has become integral to the London Summer social season. A bit like Prince Albert’s 1851 Great Exhibition and the 1951 Festival of Britain, the fair is a celebration of the greatest art and craftsmanship gathered from all four corners of the world.”
From the jewellery house that crafted Their Majesties King Charles and Queen Camilla’s wedding rings to Wahei Aoyama, the young Tokyo gallerist breaking new ground in the international art sphere, the fair will showcase galleries, working at the apex of their disciplines. The fair will see the return of some of the world’s leading antique dealers, including Ronald Phillips, Richard Green, Osborne Samuel, Wartski, Adrian Sassoon, Butchoff Antiques, MacConnal-Mason, Godson & Coles, Koopman Rare Art, Frank Partridge, S.J. Phillips, Adrian Alan, and Frank Partridge. Together, these galleries will present a spectacular selection of furniture, silver, decorative arts and jewellery, boasting extraordinary provenance and the aura of the greatest makers of their time.
They will be joined by internationally renowned galleries, including three New York institutions: the antique jewellerÀ La Vieille Russie, silver specialists S.J. Shrubsole, and the leading authority in antique porcelain Michele Beiny. Bringing her curatorial flair for merging treasures of the past with contemporary pieces, celebrated interior and furniture designer Rose Uniacke will also unveil her most recent antique and vintage finds.
As per last year, Fine Art will feature strongly, showcased by a roster of internationally renowned specialists in the fields of painting and sculpture. Fourth-generation Mayfair specialists in Old Masters, Impressionist, and Modern art, Richard Green and MacConnal-Mason will be present alongside Sladmore Gallery, specialists in animalier and monumental sculptures, the eminent art dealer and BBC ‘art detective’, Philip Mould, and Willow Gallery, London-based specialists in 15th- and 20th-century European paintings. They will be accompanied by an impressive contingent of modern British art experts, notably Osborne Samuel, Piano Nobile, and Christopher Kingzett.
Also returning are American galleries, such as Bernard Goldberg Fine Arts, specialists in early-20th-century art and Rhonda Long-Sharp, a former US attorney turned art dealer who represents young British sculptors. They will be joined by SmithDavidson whose galleries in Amsterdam and Miami renowned for their offering of Australian First Nations Art.
The full press release is available here»
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