Jackdaws

Press, Volume CXII, Issue 32975, 22 July 1972, Page 10

Jackdaws

Martin Luther. Compiled by E. R. Chamberlin. Jackdaw Publications. Lenin. Compiled by Anthony Cash. Jackdaw Publications. Tutankhamun, and the Discovery, of the Tomb. Compiled by Magnus Magnusson. Jackdaw Publications. The Budget. Compiled by Peter Jay. Jackdaw Publications. Few schoolteachers nowadays can be unaware of the Jackdaw series, which nas expanded considerably in the last few years and now includes about 140 folios of wall-charts, facsimile documents, and explanatory booklets on a very comprehensive range of topics, but with a particular bias towards the historical. The Luther collection will fascinate adults and senior school-pupils, especially those with enough Latin and German to tackle the most absorbing exercise in palaeography presented in the facsimilies, none of which are in English; they include a copy of the 95 Theses (in Latin), and several interesting pictorial items. Pupils without language training will be helped by the six large broadsheets (in English), and by a few translations provided in the accompanying leaflet. Also of interest to language students is the Lenin folio, although ignorance of Russian would be no real handicap, and one piece, the “Personal Questionnaire for Delegates to the XI All Russian Conference of R.C.P.” completed by Lenin, actually has a translation overleaf. The map provided is rather smaller than one would like, very cluttered in some areas, and lacking a scale of miles; however, the five posters provide plenty of material and a good coverage of Lenin’s whole career. At first glance, the collection on the Budget seems mainly of English interest, but in fact its historical approach (from the sixteenth century) means that it will provide a useful aid to English history, as well as tp current affairs in junior forms; there are three broadsheets, a chart of how a budget is developed, a glossary, and a picture gallery of chancellors. The Tutankhamun collection might conceivably find a place even in primary schools because the high standard of its pictorial material gives a remarkable amount of information about Egyptian art, Hfe, and archaeology, as well as a lot specifically about burial customs and the digging methods used by Carter in the 19205. All the exhibits are interesting for their own sake, and the five that are in colour will brighten up any classroom. Of the four broadsheets, perhaps the most intriguing is the one which explains the Egyptian technique of mummification—a surprisingly practical account which should not fall into the hands of aspiring young Egyptologists.