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Natural History on Blocks, in Bodies, and on the Hearth: Juvenile Science Literature and Games, 1850–1875
- Configurations
- Johns Hopkins University Press
- Volume 19, Number 3, Fall 2011
- pp. 407-430
- 10.1353/con.2011.0023
- Article
- Additional Information
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The essay examines the role of domestic spaces and images in mid-nineteenth-century science writing for children. Analyses of John Mill’s The Fossil Spirit, A.L.O.E.’s Fairy Frisket, John Cargill Brough’s The Fairy Tales of Science, Annie Carey’s “Autobiography of a Lump of Coal,” and an assortment of boxed games reveal a variety of ways in which overwhelming scientific concepts are domesticated. Moreover, juvenile science literature contributes this appeasing domestication to the broader scientific discourse, consistently framing natural history in terms of human experience.