Penza first graders were told about the development of writing

March 12, 2021 the regional center of access to the resources of the Presidential Library based on the Lermontov Regional Library held classes for first-graders of the Penza school No. 64. The children were introduced to the long amazing history of the development of writing and book business.

The children learned that the ancient people drew well and left images of animals and hunting scenes on the walls of the caves. These rock paintings are called petroglyphs. And the American Indian tribes used the subject writing - wampums (colored shells strung on a rope) and kipu (knotted writing). One can read about these interesting ways of transmitting messages on the Presidential Library’s portal in the book by Jacob Schnitzer Illustrated General History of Writings: with 155 Figures and 19 Individual Tables (1903).

Then the children were shown how writing materials developed: clay tablets, papyrus, parchment, paper. The guys tried themselves as illustrators of medieval manuscripts and drew drop caps.

The Presidential Library’s portal features the collection Penza Region: Pages of History. It includes archival documents, essays, studies and statistical materials that spotlight  demographic, geographical, socio-economic, socio-political and other aspects of the history of the region at the end of the 18th - first third of the 20th century.

Based on the materials of http://liblermont.ru portal.