ABSTRACT
Amongst the more immediately attractive items in the Museum of London’s extensive holdings of printed ephemera is a large collection of sheets of characters and scenes - ‘penny plain, tupp ence coloured’ - intended for use with the so-called toy theatres which provided entertainment and occupation for countless chil dren during the mid-nineteenth century. Even the most cursory examination suggests that they are not only, as is generally acknowledged, excellent sources of information about popular London stage productions o f the time, but that they are also reflec tive o f much wider social and even political concerns than those normally associated with them. As I gained familiarity with other items in the collections it became apparent that the images used in connection with a wide range of items of cheap ‘ephemeral’ juven ilia could well be equally revealing. Furthermore, whilst the litera ture, home and working life, clothing, education and more durable playthings o f children growing up during that period of patriotic fervour which followed the Battle of Waterloo and continued, with varying degrees o f intensity until the outbreak o f the 1914-18 war, have aroused a considerable and growing interest, relatively little attention has so far been paid to the cheap printed paper items which were accessible to, and I suggest a surprisingly formative influence upon, young people.
