Franciscan friar Bernardino de Sahagún recorded this text in the mid-16th century as part of an effort to gather information about native Aztec history and customs. Sahagún went to Mexico in 1529 as one of the first missionaries assigned to the… [more]

Franciscan friar Bernardino de Sahagún recorded this text in the mid-16th century as part of an effort to gather information about native Aztec history and customs. Sahagún went to Mexico in 1529 as one of the first missionaries assigned to the… [more]

Lydia Maria Child included this selection on how to jump rope in The Girls Own Book, a book published in 1833. Why did girls in early 19th-century America need instructions on how to jump rope? Why did Child's feel the need to caution girls? Ever… [more]

There are many fevers listed as the cause of death in early modern England that do not translate well into modern diseases (worm, spotted, pining, nervous) but scarlet fever is still with us. The Puritan Dr. Thomas Sydenham (1624-89) is often… [more]

This excerpt comes from a chapter of Okina mondô, or Dialog with an Old Man, by Nakae Tôju (1606–1648), a Neo-Confucian philosopher. The Dialog teaches practical ethics through a series of questions and answers between a young disciple, Taijû,… [more]

This module examines the impact of colonization on childhood experiences in New Zealand’s bicultural society of indigenous Maori and mostly European Pakeha between the first encounter in the 18th century to the 20th century, including issues of language, child labor and schooling as well as changing values concerning family structure, identity, and social policy. [more]

The overt moral tone of the advice reproduced on page 51 of this particular diary was neither unusual nor exceptional for the period. Similar sentiments were to be found in the schoolbooks of the era, many of which were produced and distributed by… [more]