Limp paper wrapper for “Good Words”
Unknown designer
May 1864
Ink blocking on light brown paper.
9½ x 6 ¾ inches
See commentary below
[Click on image to enlarge it.]
Photograph and text by Simon Cooke
[You may use this image without prior permission for any scholarly or educational purpose as long as you (1) credit the photographer and (2) link to this URL in a web document or cite it in a print one.]
Commentary
This unsigned binding emphasises the magazine’s focus on moral education by combining images of ‘good words’ at work. A priest blesses the poor and below is a panel showing artists painting and drawing, presumably creating the sort of didactic imagery that was popular at the time. Most telling, however, is the representation of children and parenting. In the right hand panels we have two scenes of pater as loving father, teaching his children about the world. In the uppermost image a father is about to read to his excited children; while below is an older man (the children having grown up), talking to his son about astronomy as they gaze at the wonder of God’s universe, globe and telescope to hand. Angels protect humankind, looking down from the medallions at the top of the design, and at the bottom children plants seeds and reap what they have grown.
The universality of this message (teach the children good values and the world improves), is expressed by two scenes of colonial expansion, taking the word across the ocean in a steam paddle-ship, and on camel-back to the distant reaches of the Empire. Whatever the magazine’s ambitions, its light, portable format made it easy to read in the work-place or on rail journeys. How many readers bothered to decode the front cover? Impossible to know, although the editor, Norman Macleod, laid out his stall in detail, consciously aiming his periodical at the conservative consumer.
References
Good Words. London: Strahan, 1864.
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Last modified 1 November 2014