The Batho collection contains school history textbooks published between the 1840s and 2000s. These textbooks show changes in history writing as well as the biases and prejudices of their times.
The collection is of interest to those researching language use in schoolbooks, historical attitudes to different social groups and to Empire.
Professor Gordon Batho, who assembled the collection, was an educationalist and historian. He helped to set up the Ealing branch of the Historical Association at the age of 15. In 2008, he won the Norton Medlicott medal for outstanding contributions to history.
You can access listings covering the following years in PDF format:
A collection of teaching-related material dating from 1920 to 1970. Most of the collection is on the topic of literacy with some coverage of numeracy and history The collection includes lesser-known works by famous authors such as Enid Blyton and Arthur Ransome.
A collection of eight sets of classroom posters published in the 1950s with more than 400 individual posters. Topics covered include history, geography, nature, and Bible stories from the New Testament and the Old Testament.
The posters show education in the 1950s as well as the social history of the time. They are also works of art and illustration in their own right.