Mijn knaapjes, wilt gestaag met deze prent verkeeren, / Dan zult ge in korten tijd het A, B, C, goed leeren 1848 - 1881

This print, made by Lutkie & Cranenburg, attempts to use images to teach children their ABCs. Educational prints like this one, produced in the Netherlands, betray certain cultural attitudes in the way they associate images with language. For example, the letter 'V' shows a "Full Hottentot," next to a European man. Such images were part of a broad effort to represent faraway lands to children as objects of colonial power. The letter 'X', featuring a soldier, hints at the way colonial expansion depended upon a military presence. These images were meant to be circulated and consumed by children. Educational materials like this one are valuable sources for historians. They show the ways that institutions such as schools and museums helped produce social knowledge. A deeper look into the archives will help us better understand the relationship between art and its wider institutional context.