Child art in the historical record: A timeline

When imagining the past, people tend to forget that a huge portion of the population was made up of children — playing, learning, getting into mischief, and sometimes even making art. In the following thread, Dr Dorsa Amir has selected a number of lively examples of children's art from the historical record. 

This resource was originally published as a Twitter thread on 2 February 2022. You can view Dorsa's original thread online.

Child handprints, Tibet, 200,000 Years Ago

First up are these (newly discovered!) tiny handprints, found in Tibet & dated to around 200,000 years ago. They seem to be intentionally made by at least two kids — probably between 7-12 years old — who found a layer of soft travertine & decided to leave their marks. These prints arguably constitute the oldest known example of parietal art in the world.

Child art, Pompeii, 1st Century AD

In the 1st century AD, a Roman child used a stylus to carve this little stick figure into a wall in Pompeii. More than half of children's graffiti in Pompeii can be found in public, suggesting kids had active lives outside of home & lots of access to public spaces.

Birch manuscripts, Novgorod, 1200 AD

From around 1200 AD, we have these stunning birch manuscripts from a little boy named Onfim who lived in Novgorod (present day Russia). In addition to homework exercises — like practicing the Cyrillic alphabet — Onfim also drew illustrations of knights, horses, & battles. The doodle below shows Onfim himself, mounted on horseback, wielding a sword and riding past a slain enemy.

Child writing, Unknown, ca. 6-19th Century

Also from the Middle Ages, we have these snippets of a Jewish child's writing exercises, from the Cairo Geniza collection. In addition to practicing the Hebrew alphabet, we can also see a little doodle of what appears to be a camel, and perhaps a tiny little menorah.

Children's doodles, England, mid-1800s

Moving now to the mid-1800s, a close examination of Charles Darwin's original draft of Origin of Species reveals that manuscript paper was often recycled in the Darwin home as scratch paper for drawing. Darwin's children's doodles can be found all along the margins & backsides of the manuscript. They involve battles between men riding on turnips, pears, and carrots.

Children's drawings, France, 1917

Of course, children also experienced major events in the world — such as World War I — alongside adults, and often incorporated these events into their drawings. Here's a French child's drawing from 1917, showing American troops marching victoriously into Paris.

Overall, hopefully a reminder that despite often being overlooked, children have always been a part of our communities, and have sometimes found ways to leave their marks on history.

Replies and further comments

Below we have collated responses from historians and other members of the public who responded to Dr Amir's original thread.