The Textbook Colloquium

The Colloquium was founded in 1988 to promote the interdisciplinary study of textbooks. These books, which are often neglected, are useful indicators of social change and of the transmission of ideas. The textbook provides not only primary evidence about what was taught at any given time, but, in its prefaces, notes and in the text itself, gives evidence of authorial intentions, values and prejudices. The material form of textbooks – the organisation and presentation of subject matter, including the design of the page, the size and variation of type, and illustrations – provides information on teaching methods and educational priorities. Such books have often not been accessioned or catalogued by libraries. In consequence they have been neglected by historians. A major function of the Colloquium is to make available information on the location – sometimes the very existence – of little known textbooks.

Meetings of the Colloquium are held twice or three times each year. One is usually in London and we also meet in regional centres (so far, in about fifteen universities, schools and libraries) so as to contact local groups and to explore library collections. Meetings are informal and consist of short papers followed by discussion.

We have established links with the Book Trade History Group; the History of Education Society; the British Society for the History of Mathematics; the Centre for the Book (British Library); the Society for the History of Authorship, Reading and Publishing (SHARP); and the Children’s Books History Society. The Colloquium was a founding member of the International Textbook research Association.

Current membership is £15.00 a year, which includes two issues of Paradigm, the official journal of the Colloquium. For membership of the Colloquium, please contact John Denniss, Chessins, Chignal Smealey, CHELMSFORD, Essex, CM1 4TN, UK.