Australian alphabet

The horn book could teach young children the alphabet, but its plainness and simplicity contained little in the way of fun. The battledore was a further development of the ABC book or primer, and introduced illustrations to assist learning. Another development again was to use the alphabet as a device or a frame for rhymes accompanied by illustrations. These alphabet books assumed some ability to read; while they may have encouraged the learner, they were surely aimed at the more confident reader.

The Young Australian's Alphabet was the first book in William and Samuel Calvert's series of Australian Picture Books. The rhymes and their illustrations are proudly Australian: there is hardly a letter of the alphabet that does not refer to Australia or Australians: even 'U is unknown; and 'tis really the truth, too much is unknown to Australian youth'.

William and Samuel Calvert were the sons of the English artist Edward Calvert, a disciple of William Blake. The two brothers emigrated to South Australia, later moving to Victoria with the gold rushes of the 1850s. They established themselves as engravers and printers and Samuel worked as an artist for a number of newspapers. At the Intercolonial Exhibition in Melbourne in 1875, they demonstrated the new cheap colour printing processes they employed and were awarded a medal, for which the citation referred both to the quality of the artwork and the printing. It also applauded their work in trying to 'familiarize Australian children with the natural history and surroundings of their colonial home'.

This copy was the gift of Claude Rankin. The book had been in his family for several generations and despite conservation work, shows the signs of heavy use by his forebears.

Permission to use this item for any purpose, including publishing, is not required from the State Library under these conditions of use.

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