Children's Books Come Alive in Students' Projects

​Students from Dr. Lisa Surridge's Victorian and Edwardian Children's Literature class took history in their hands last Thursday in UVic Special Collections.

Using books from the collection, students presented to their peers their historical explorations of Victorian books, from their bindings to the squashed bugs and hand-written annotations within them. 
 
Highlights included a heavily annotated copy of "Who Killed Cock Robin" with hand-drawn renderings of cock robin speared with an arrow;  a hand-painted copy of The Little Princess owned by the girl who went on to found St Margaret's school on Vancouver Island; and a copy of Parley's Magazine with a child's remarks on a leopard ("he is a fierce one") and a native chief ("this is me").
 
This unique hands-on project is a collaboration between the Department of English and UVic Special Collections. Many thanks to the library staff for their support.