This beautiful life-size painting of four children is by William Hogarth, who also specialized in engravings such as Gin Lane. It was commissioned by Daniel Graham, a rich apothecary (pharmacist) to the royal family and to Chelsea Hospital in London.… [more]

Robert Willan (1757-1812) was a physician who practiced in London. Like Sydenham he was fascinated by the relation of weather to epidemics and kept strict records on when they occurred over several years. He was particularly interested in the… [more]

This image shows children and adults making their way from the African interior to the coast in a slave coffle. While some may think that children were given special treatment because of their age, and some may have, this image suggests that this was… [more]

The Graphic, a London periodical owned by liberal reformer William Luson Thomas, was not an abolitionist publication per se, but it did seek to inspire action against those causes that Thomas felt demanded immediate attention, such as poverty,… [more]

Contrary to impression left by document #2, schools for commoners were plentiful prior to the Meiji Restoration in 1868. These schools are usually known by the term terakoya, which literally means "temple school." The first image is of one such… [more]

An image of Tokugawa-period (1600–1868) Japan, a detail from an ink painting by Hanabusa Itchô (1562–1724), shows children watching a puppet show and helps illuminate issues of social class and facilitates discussion on how attitudes towards children and their education changed with Japan's modernization. echo [more]

This is an ink painting on a scroll by Hanabusa Itchô (born Taga Shinkô), a Japanese artist of the early Tokugawa period (1600–1868). Tokugawa artists typically used pen names and Itchô used several names at different times as an artist and… [more]