Introduction

One of our major aims in creating a journal specializing in the history of children and young people has been to publish articles from scholars working in a variety of historical methodologies and across a wide geographical and chronological range. The essays appearing in this issue of the Journal of the History of Childhood and Youth nicely exemplify these goals. Readers will find such diverse offerings as an examination of Girl Guides in the British Empire along with a symposium dedicated to the thirtieth anniversary of the publication of Steven Schlossman and Stephanie Wallach’s important article “The Crime of Precocious Sexuality: Female Juvenile Delinquency in the Progressive Era.” The geographical and chronological scope extends from late Medieval Europe to the United States during its Civil War and on to various points of the globe including India, Canada, and England. The authors employ a wide range of materials from traditional archival documents to media based on the internet, all aimed at uncovering and understanding the history of childhood and youth. Taken together they exemplify the broad and varied field that JHCY was designed to showcase.

The issue begins with James Marten’s look at The Myriopticon, a panorama exhibiting images of the Civil War. Marten shows how the game represented the cultural importance of the conflict, even in the lives of children, and how the marketing and distribution of such items signaled the growing commercialization of children’s play.

Mathew Kuefler examines the false legend of Anderl of Rinn, a young boy, supposedly the victim of Jewish ritual murder in fifteenth century Austria. The author points out that although the accusations contained no truth, the telling of the story provides important clues to the lives of children during this period. The essay also touches on an important and difficult challenge faced by those who study the history of children in the distant past: how to uncover facts of children’s lives even when the sources are limited. Kuefler skillfully reads around and in between the lines of his sources to glean “little truths” about the real experiences of children during this period. He finds a world where family can represent a variety of complex legal and financial relationships and where danger is ever present.

Kristine Alexander’s work on the Girl Guide movement ranges across several continents and draws on a rich variety of source materials to explore the relationship between imperialism and internationalism. Alexander balances materials produced by adults hoping to shape the lives of young girls with writings, including letters and essays, created by the girls themselves. As JHCY enters its second year we hope to publish more articles that incorporate materials produced by children and young people and we encourage our readers to submit such work.

The final article takes us into a contemporary tragedy and asks questions about media practices and how they represent youth and mental illness. The author, Kathleen Jones, teaches at Virginia Tech University and writes about the terrible events of April 2007, when thirty-three people died at the hand of Seung Hui Cho. Combining her scholarly work on youth suicide with her own personal experiences and those of others produces a powerful narrative on the evolving ways such tragedies are commemorated.

The issue concludes with a symposium celebrating the thirtieth anniversary of the publication of Steven Schlossman and Stephanie Wallach’s “The Crime of Precocious Sexuality: Female Juvenile Delinquency in the Progressive Era.” The article, first appearing in the Harvard Educational Review, used gender as a tool of analysis to argue that concerns over female sexuality informed the juvenile justice system of the Progressive era. We viewed this occasion as an excellent opportunity to revisit a classic work in the field and to suggest ways of building on its legacy. The discussion between the original authors and those scholars whose more recent work has been profoundly influenced by “Precocious Sexuality” creates the kind of dialogue that we hoped this journal would produce.