TEACHER MATERIALS - BLT19: 19th-Century Business, Labour, Temperance, & Trade Periodicals

Nineteenth-century periodicals contain a variety of content–both textual and visual–that can be easily adapted for use in the classroom. The BLT19 Project provides lesson ideas, digitised nineteenth-century periodicals, and contextual materials to encourage secondary and undergraduate teachers to use historical periodicals in the classroom.

The periodicals found on the BLT19 Project site are from a genre that has received relatively little scholarly attention: publications devoted to business, labour, trade, and temperance. Their pages contain wide-ranging, diverse content: nonfiction, poetry, illustrations, serial fiction, news, short stories, and items submitted by readers. The content not only speaks to social, cultural, and business history, much of it has clear twenty-first-century analogues. It creates an opportunity to consider the ways in which today’s communities of interest, such as businesses and professions, communicate with their members.

In its initial stage, the BLT19 Project is piloting classroom materials developed for English and History teachers based on two nineteenth-century trade publications:

The British Workman (1855-1921); and
The Stationery Trade Review (1881-1913).

Teacher materials are organised around themes. Materials on the site are easily downloadable. They can be used either online or in hard copy. While an estimated academic level is provided, the assignments are meant to be “mixed and matched” and adapted to suit students’ skill levels and classroom needs.

INTRODUCTION TO 19TH-CENTURY PERIODICALS

THEME

Theme 1: Industrialisation

Theme 2: Identifying Target Audience

Theme 3: Missionaries, Colonialism, and the British Workman

Theme 4: What is a Trade Journal?

Theme 5: Women in the British Workman

SUBJECT

English Language and Literature

Theme 2: Identifying Target Audience
Theme 4: What is a Trade Journal?
Theme 5: Women in the British Workman

History

Theme 1: Industrialisation
Theme 3: Missionaries, Colonialism, and the British Workman