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Last updated 20/10/2025

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'Moral Culture of Infancy and Kindergarten Guide' by Mrs Horace Mann (Mary Tyler Peabody) and Elizabeth P Peabody was published by T O H P Burnham in Boston in 1863. It contains information on the use of paperfolding to facilitate the cutting of symmetrical shapes and as a way of teaching mathematical ideas. There are no explanatory illustrations in the work, other than a frontispiece.

There is a brief mention of other toys made out of folded paper.

A full copy of the work can be accessed here.

A second revised edition was issued in 1869.

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Analysis

There are two sections relating to paperfolding in the work

1. From Chapter VI: Manipulations

This section is a description of the occupation of Ausschneiden und Aufkleben (Cutting Out and Mounting) plus a description of how to make much simpler one fold and cut symmetrical designs.

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2. From Chapter IX: Geometry

This section is mostly a description of how to use simple Folds of Knowledge to teach mathematics but one passage includes a brief mention of some Folds of Life including 'fly-boxes' - see Paper Prisons for Insects.

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