This post was written by Sapna Rajesh and Sadie Straus, students participating virtually in the Library of Congress High School Summer Internship. This summer, under the mentorship of Jennifer Ezell and Katie McCarthy, the virtual participants worked in groups of two to add a teen perspective to the David M. Rubinstein Treasures Gallery: Collecting Memories exhibition. Sadie and Sapna focused their work on the theme “Guiding Memory.”
Memory is the foundation of our lives. From the minute we are born, our job is to learn and to remember. There are so many things to explore, from trying to sing along to nursery rhymes to playing with a rickety swing in the playground for the first time. As we grow older, we begin to carry with us two types of memory: academic and personal. Academic memories allow us to articulate our ideas and advance our skills, while personal memories dictate our values and beliefs. Worksheets, conversations, and traditions guide us through this process of learning and remembering. We, Sadie and Sapna, studied these resources in the Library’s collection as a part of the 2024 virtual internship cohort. We wanted to understand the tools that different societies and generations have used to guide memory. As we researched, we began to understand the importance of memory and the tools we use to strengthen it.
Guiding Memory: Learning Language
Across societies and centuries, tools for guiding memory vary drastically. There are many ways to learn the common alphabet and basic arithmetic! We remember sitting in our elementary school classrooms, staring starry-eyed at the colorful posters that lined the walls, a picture-filled workbook in front of us. Of course, this wasn’t the case for everyone historically. It was rare for books to be specifically published for children in the 18th century, but educators still needed a learning tool that would allow students to memorize important information. Thus, the hornbook was born. Originally created in England, hornbooks were also used in America.
Hornbooks, like this one found in the Collecting Memories exhibition, were intended to help children memorize information as they went about their daily routines. This particular hornbook, possibly from America, included resources that children at the time might need, such as a two-line abacus with beads at the top for counting, the alphabet with lower and uppercase, and the Lord’s Prayer. These common tools of education in the 18th century, when this hornbook is believed to have been made, aren’t necessarily the same tools that students need today. Regardless of its content, the hornbook paved the way for a future of facilitating memory in education. If you are interested, feel free to learn more about the hornbook here: Rare Book of the Month: ABCs Through the Centuries.
With time, educational tools like hornbooks transformed into colorful children’s books that presented the alphabet in a new, entertaining light, often with facts intertwined. The Library of Congress has a picture book from 1885 that does exactly this: “The Baseball ABCs” teaches the alphabet while allowing children to join in the excitement of finding a new community.
In “The Baseball ABCs,” each letter of the alphabet was turned into something more fun and exciting. With this book, children could memorize the alphabet, learn basic baseball terms, and enjoy the feeling of being part of a sports community. During this time period, baseball was rapidly becoming one of America’s favorite sports. “The Baseball ABCs” demonstrated a sense of shared interest and enjoyment and let children have fun as they memorized letters in a new, inventive way.
What tools did you use to memorize the ABCs? If you are with someone who is a different age, consider asking them how they learned the ABCs. Were the tools you used the same or different?
Guiding Memory: Cultural and Ethical Lessons
Like many, we learned the ABCs by song. Many of our lessons were put to song as a way to keep us entertained. Teachers constantly sang jingles like “make new friends, but keep the old, one is silver and the other’s gold” as they walked through the hallways of our schools. The song is stamped in our minds, along with the lesson it shares. While the song may seem trivial, we’ve come to understand it as a mnemonic device that imparts ethical lessons and teaches its listener.
So, what exactly is a mnemonic? Essentially, a mnemonic is a tool that aids memory. Mnemonics can be nonsense phrases like “Never Eat Soggy Waffles,” which recall the cardinal directions, or rhymes like “I before E except after C,” which teach grammar rules. As we understand it, though, mnemonics can also perpetuate moral lessons, such as the “make new friends but keep the old…” song or “Schatzbehalter des wahren Reichtümer des Heils”, a religious mnemonic device. The “Schatzbehalter” is a 1491 guide that uses an image of a hand to reinforce congregants’ understanding of the life and passions of Christ.
Like the quintessential jingle, the “Schatzbehalter“ is a tool for establishing values. Using a hand as a motif creates accessible tools that evoke memories even after reading. The hand is helpful in guiding spiritual and religious memory because it relates divinity to individuality. In fact, hands are often used for mnemonic devices — such as using fingers to memorize how many days are in each month or making an “L” shape to remember right from left.
Can you think of a time when you have used your hand or another part of your body to remember something?
This image depicts a means of preserving and sharing cultural heritage. In the photograph above, students are taking Korean language classes in Maryland. Learning Korean, or any other language, while living in the United States also guides memory. It facilitates connection and remembrance to other cultures. As teachers engage students in the repetition of words and phrases in one language, and constant translation into another one, children are able to make quick progress in learning both languages. This leads to a stronger ability to memorize information and fosters connections between cultures. Similar to the student in the photograph, I, Sapna, would spend my weekends repeating syllables until they felt natural and tracing complicated letters until my hands ached in order to memorize a new language. These hours were tedious, but the connections created between my culture and academic abilities serve me well to this day.
Have you tried to learn a new language? What methods did you use to commit new words to memory?
We are nothing without our memories, a collection of hidden truths that are each incredibly important. Every whispered mnemonic or written fable tells the stories of those who came before us, guiding us and helping us learn more. As you reflect more on personal memories, try the activity below!
Activity
Are there mnemonic devices that you learned when you were younger or use today? If so, are the values that they hold specific to a culture, religious belief, or societal norm? Once you’ve discussed this, try writing an acrostic poem! Each letter should represent a part of your identity that you would want to pass onto a future generation. Think in terms of traits, ideals, and values!
Next month, Minerva’s Kaleidoscope will feature the work of two other students who participated in the Library of Congress’ High School Summer Internship. They’ll be highlighting items form the Library’s collections that they found online and in the David M. Rubenstein Treasures Gallery.