Pasts at play showcases a range of approaches to children's literature and culture, from disciplines including Classics, English Literature, and History. The ten essays integrate visual and material culture into historical practice to analyse how nineteenth-century children interacted playfully with the past to generate moral lessons.

Introduction: pasts at play – Rachel Bryant Davies and Barbara GriblingPart I: Biblical and archaeological pasts1 Noah’s Ark-aeology and nineteenth-century children – Melanie Keene2 Bringing Egypt home: children’s encounters with ancient Egypt in the long nineteenth century – Virginia ZimmermanPart II: Classical pasts3 Didactic heroes: masculinity, sexuality and exploration in the Argonaut story of Kingsley’s The Heroes – Helen Lovatt4 ‘Fun from the Classics’: puzzling antiquity in The Boy’s Own Paper – Rachel Bryant DaviesPart III: Medieval and early modern pasts5 Youthful consumption and conservative visions: Robin Hood and Wat Tyler in late Victorian penny periodicals – Stephen Basdeo6 A tale of two ladies? Stuart women as role models for Victorian and Edwardian girls and young women – Rosemary MitchellPart IV: Revived pasts7 Tarry-at-home antiquarians: children’s ‘tour books’ 1740–1840 – M. O. Grenby8 Playing with the past: child consumers, pedagogy and British history games, c. 1780–1850 – Barbara Gribling9 Re-enacting local history in the Stepney Children’s Pageant, 1909 – Ellie ReidAppendix A: A list of 'tour books' – M. O. GrenbyAppendix B: A list of British history-themed toys and games – Barbara GriblingIndex

Pasts at play examines British children in the late Georgian, Victorian and Edwardian eras as active consumers of a variety of pasts, from the biblical and classical to the medieval and early modern. This period, 1750–1914, saw crucial developments in children’s culture and historical education, as children became target consumers for publishers. Boys and girls across the social classes often experienced multiple pasts simultaneously for thepurpose of amusement and instruction. Their encounters were interactive, imaginative and, above all, playful.This interdisciplinary collection brings together new approaches to childhood culture and the dynamic role of play within that culture. Specialists in Classics, English and History reconstruct children’s encounters with different media to uncover the cultural work done by particular pasts and expose the key role of playfulness in the British historical imagination. Together, these ten studies explore the diverse range of media, and of pasts, that were marketed to children that are essential to fully understand the significance of children’s interactions with the past. Analysing sources ranging from games to guide-books and puzzles to pageants, contributors develop fresh approaches to children’s culture and the uses of the past. This book will be valuable for researchers and students interested in the afterlives of the past, the history of education and child consumerism and interaction.

‘Pasts at play makes a valuable contribution to scholarship on informal learning, revealing how much more we understand about the history of education when we look beyond the school gates.’ Siân Pooley, Victorian Studies