ENCYCLOPAEDIAS

ENCYCLOPAEDIAS ON THE SHELF

Before the internet, we had to look things up in books, and if we were lucky we had access to encyclopaedias, an alphabetically organized treasure trove of information about....well..just about everything really.

In the 1950s and 60s most homes at least aspired to have a set, be it the Funk and Wagnells, purchased in weekly volumes from the local newsagency or the weighty Encyclopaedia Britannica.  There was a real pride in the ownership of such desirable things.

It is sad that in 2019, I literally couldn't give the volumes in the photograph away - even the charity I contacted said that they did not accept donations of encyclopaedias.  Despite the little voice in my head saying "you really don't have the room to take these home" I did just that - (well the Britannicas and the Popular Mechanics anyway - I thought the medical volumes might just lead to hypochondria).  Wikipedia is amazing, as are many other internet sources but books operate in a different way, and I know I'll end up finding out all sorts of things I didn't even know I didn't know by randomly dipping into the volumes.  Besides they are things of beauty with gorgeous maroon binding and gold foiled spines, and very tactile - far too fine for the skip1

NOVELTY STORYBOOKS with Records from the 1960s

Novelty Records for Children  - 1960s

As far as I can work out, these little book records were made by a Dutch company, Mulder and Zoon. One website found that mentions them http://www.minigroove.nl/mulder4.html suggests that they may date to the early sixties and I can confirm that they are at least this old. I really don't quite know what to do with them – any suggestions appreciated.

I listened to them quite a bit as a child, but its hard to imagine that they would captivate the current crop of under fives who are quite capable of independently accessing streaming services. I thought they were pretty impressive at the time, though. One has to remember that there was once a world without Wiggles, You Tube and Netflix. Never the less, these are still cute, and as far as I know still work, the only major design flaw being that you can't exactly read along whilst playing the record!!