Red book, containing seventeen handwritten exercise books of Adrian Percy Bishop, Kettering, 1893 - 1897

Eighteen exercise books, bound into one large book with red painted cloth cover. The binding has been handmade from card, covers of Boy's Own Annual, and cloth tape. The spine is red, with a black rectangle enclosing gold writing stating the title of the book. On the front, in gold, are the dates 1893-1897. There are a number of loose sheets and sections (B.376:2 to 11-2012) which are dispersed throughout the book, though may not be in their original positions.

Throughout, the work is handwritten in pen with a few entries written in pencil. Each exercise book contains the work of more than one subject, and most pages have been marked by the same teacher. The following is a brief overview of each book:

1. Green cover, labelled 'Percy Bishop May 1893'. It contains draft letters to family members, and geography and history facts in numbered lists, probably test answers.
2. Green cover, labelled 'Percy Bishop November 1893', contains similar material.
3. Green cover, labelled 'Percy Bishop March 1894'. The letters contain notes about everyday life, and the tests focus on early British history around the time of the Roman invasion.
4. No front cover, and starts with a test about Julius Caesar.
5. Exercise book from 'The Eclipse Series' from 'The London Educational Depot, Chancery Lane' dated July 1895. The first section covers British history from 1066 to the Peasants Revolt, followed by geography and a number of sketch maps.
6. No cover; the first page is the word 'Lanarkshire' repeated three times. Letters to family members are interspersed with history, scripture and geography work. Includes piece on Elizabeth Fry and Elizabeth Barrett-Browning, fishing in Siam, Siberia, letters about examinations, and many references to friends, the Guild, and church services. The back of the exercise book is printed with useful information about currency and measurements. Includes a section headed 'Proposed English Money' which lists 10 mils in a cent, 10 cents in a florin, 10 florins a pound.
7. Contains dictations about Charles Dickens and Queen Victoria, and some mathematics exercises.
8. Cover printed 'South College, Kettering, labelled 'Adrian Percy Bishop, History etc. October 1896'. The back of this cover has been inscribed with a number of words written in biro, of a much later date. They include words using the suffixes 'phile' and the prefix 'bio'. Bishop's work starts with the Field of the Cloth of Gold, through to the late Tudors, and also includes Natural History and Grammar.
9. Light pink cover, printed with 'South College Kettering', labelled 'Dictation etc'. The letters mention what books he is reading, dictations discuss Orangutans, chemistry, Patagonia.
10. No cover. Contains British geography, work on whales, late medieval history and arithmetic exercises. Also a letter dated November 24th 1896
11. Opens with dictations concerning the international quality of milk and production of sugar. Other composition works on Tudor history, a little arithmetic.
12. No cover, includes Pro-Cromwell account of build up to Civil War, writings on empire and citizenship, account of 'cannibal savages' of Patagonia, the Huguenot settlement in Spitalfields, and a breathless pencil written account of a battle against ‘savages’
13. No cover. Alternating pages of Geography and Natural History, delivered in groups of 6 or 7 facts, often not related. Topics include British and global towns, landscapes and trade. Natural History lessons are similarly diffuse, and includes racial categorisation of humans. There are occasional grammar exercises and scripture work. An annotation on last page reads Easter 1897.
14. No cover. Alternating History and Natural History, which includes Magnetism and electricity.
15. No cover, work dated March 1897. Dictation alternates with Composition exercises, covering Indian government and life in Norman England, and long series about the life of Mozart. Very frequent lists of words dictated for spelling.
16. Arithmetic book starting in May 1898. Possibly working from a number of cards, sums calculate the cost of commodities including calico, serge, gloves and silk.
17. Starts March 1897. Includes History, Geography, Natural History, Grammar, scripture. Includes pages on electricity and sound waves.
18. The final book includes History, Geography, Composition and Grammar analysis. The last involving charts breaking down structure of brief passages. The focus remains on empire, trade, and British pastimes like cricket and sailing.

Given by John Guyatt

These exercise books contain the work of Adrian Percy Bishop, while a student at South College, Kettering. A.P.B. compiled this book as a memento, which he kept into his career as a teacher and then Head.
These books were later collected by the donor's sister.

The eighteen exercise books collected here chart five years of late-Victorian education for a middle class boy in a small public school. Adrian Percy Bishop attended South College, Kettering, from 1892 to 1897.
The curriculum is limited to History, Geography, Natural History, Grammar and Scripture - with a smattering of arithmetic. Each subject is taught through long dictation and composition exercises, and ranges across diverse topics day by day. The focus is consistently on the heros of History, the expanse of the Empire (supported by racist and stereotyped representations of 'natives'), and the everyday trade and pastimes of the British.
This collection is invaluable for its insights into the way children were encouraged to think and write about the world around them.

B.376:1 to 11-2012