COLLECTION OF SCHOOL PAINTINGS

This envelope shows twelve of the vast collection of school paintings owned by the Museum of Eastern Bohemia in Hradec Králové.
These antique paintings were used by teachers at the turn of the century as storytelling props in Czech schools. On the front side was a fairy tale teaching morals and other things to small children, while on the backside was printed the story for teachers to read from.
They were part of an exhibition on early 20th century schooling and were adored by both the little kids at the museum and the big kids too. ​​​
The question was though: how could we get them compact enough in a friendly sellable format to visitors after they left the exhibit?

At first, we were thinking about creating just a poster or brochure, but we wanted to keep it as close to the original way they were used as possible. After some experimenting, we ended up creating big sheets with transcriptions of the stories on their backsides.
They are durable enough for the little hands and are kept separately in an envelope so parents can use them the same way as teachers almost a hundred years ago.​​​​​​​