Diversity and Inclusion

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Archival materials produced by children from the past (including diaries, exercise books, fan letters, and children’s artwork), are most often tucked away in special collections dedicated to children’s literature studies—and thus the adults who contribute to producing literature for children. Only recently has more attention been given to the value of these historical materials in their own right, with special ‘archives of childhood’ emerging.  Scholars, including Karen Sánchez-Eppler and Mahshid Mayar, have worked to theorize the space of ‘archives of childhood’, often positioning these debates within studies of the history of childhood. Yet there is still much more to investigate concerning this type of archival material and how we, as researchers of children’s literature, might approach it. 

This workshop aims to discuss how we can understand the evolving collecting missions of children’s literature archives, and how they in turn bestow value on children’s historical materials. As well, we will consider how we, as researchers of children’s literature, can take practical steps towards analyzing and interpreting this material: How do we discover this material in the first place? What do we do with it once we find it? We will examine historical materials from multiple collections around the world, as well as share our own experiences of archival research using the digital collection, Exercise Book Archive, which houses an number of children’s exercise books in their original languages and with accompanying English translations. As a result, participants will gain a heightened awareness of the methods for archival research more broadly, but also be attuned to the specific requirements for working with children’s materials in the archive.

Required reading list

Sánchez-Eppler, Karen. ‘In the Archives of Childhood’. The Children’s Table: Childhood Studies and the Humanities. Ed. Anna Mae Duane. Atlanta, GA: University of Georgia Press, 2013. 213–237.

Mahshid, Mayar. ‘Playes Print the Letter: American Child(hoods) as Archival Present/ce’. The Journal of the History of Childhood and Youth 16.4 (2023): 361–383.

Select a digital exercise book or personal diary from Exercise Book Archive. There are many examples in languages from other countries. You could also, as an alternative, bring an old exercise book or diary of your own or of a parent or grandparent, which, if you are interested, could potentially become part of Exercise Book Archive’s participatory archive. These should be from childhood (age 0-18). You should ensure, if the archival material is your own, that you omit any details that you would not want to share with others, in the same way that archivists at Exercise Book Archive act to remove personal identifying information (e.g. names of authors, personal addresses, etc). *Note that exercise books with freely available pages/translations have a checkmark underneath them.

Preparatory task for all participants

Read Karen Sánchez-Eppler and Mahshid Mayar’s articles on archives of childhood, and make notes useful for analysing the exercise book you have selected from Exercise Book Archive, paying attention to their use of the term ‘archive’ and their methods for analyzing archival materials created by children. Finally, take a closer look at the exercise book you selected (remember, this could be a personal one if you have access to this) and reflect on it: How did you decide what material was worth interpreting? What conclusions did you draw about childhood based on your interpretation? Did the context surrounding the book (e.g. its place within an educational system) influence any of your ideas about the meaning behind the passages you selected for analysis? Come to the workshop with a hard copy of the exercise book (or take pictures of it) and be prepared to share your thoughts with others.

Assignment for students taking ECTS credits

Referring to secondary source(s) from the reading list, analyse an exercise book of your choice and consider how it serves as a commentary on the relationship between adults and children and/or the role of the school in providing windows into children’s everyday lives (i.e. can we trust these snapshots into children’s lives?).  You are welcome, and even encouraged, to select an exercise book in your language/from your country. Focus on the origins of the exercise book you have selected and how this frames your reading of the words written by the child author. The text should not exceed 700 words, but feel free to include any number of images. Send the Word or Pages file to emily.murphy@newcastle.ac.uk before 1 June.

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