Specimens of Melvina Townsend’s work in the Kindergarten School, 1893 & 1894, 5 & 6 years of age…

Manuscript caption title: “Specimens of Melvina Townsend’s work in the Kindergarten School, 1893 & 1894. 5 and 6 years of age…Miss Julia Taylor, Teacher.” In a typical period scrap book album, 12.5 x 10 inches, with decorative embossed covers and 30 album leaves. Very Good with light soil and rubbing, binding slightly shaken. Mounted contents have suffered discoloration from the adhesive, with frequent abrasion to facing samples, especially the mounted paper weavings and some lost threads on the sewing cards. Location unstated, but Melvina Townsend and teacher, Julia Taylor, have been located in Cape May, New Jersey, records.

The album represents several of Froebel's Gifts and Occupations: Drawing (Gift #10), Pricking (#11), Sewing (#12), Paper Cutting (#13), Paper Weaving (#14) and Paper Folding (#18). Executed by a kindergarten student, full of evidence of its child creator. The custom-pricked name plate and alphabet cards are unusual, and the loose pencil drawings are typical of Kindergarten work, but uncommon (and very welcome) survivals. It also includes 3 pages of diecuts--something of an aesthetic aberration, but they do speak to the child's creator's whims and graphic intake. The wobbly loose paper cutting examples also align with modern expectations of child creation more than the exquisite designs seen in teachers' albums.

Album contents:
8 pages with 9 geometric sewing specimens
8 pages with letters of the alphabet on 31 cards (sewing and pricking)
5 pages of paper weaving with 5 specimens
1 page of paper folding with 9 forms
3 pages of perforating/pricking with 10 examples
3 pages of die cuts (11 specimens, including 2 tri-folds)

Laid in:
10 loose paper cut compositions on pulp paper
2 manuscript poems
9 loose leaves of drawings on quadrille ruled paper (2 double-sided)