A child's traced and colored pictures from long ago

Last year I came across about 20 loose pages of artwork that had previously been stored in a notebook or binder. They are the work of a child named Charlotte.

It appears that they were created by tracing the outlines of existing illustrations and coloring them in.

Most of the pictures deal with issues of health of hygiene — brushing your teeth, taking a bath, using a handkerchief, eating balanced meals, etc.

There are, in fact, a few handwritten pages that contain hygiene tips. Some examples:

• "Do not pick the ears with a pin or a toothpick or a match. If there is much wax in them, have it removed by a doctor."
• "Never poke rubbers, pencils, sticks or beans into your nose. The lining of the nose may be injured, and often small objects such as beans become lodged in the nose and cause a great deal of pain."
• "Clean your teeth every morning, every night, and after each meal. Brush them in front and in back, across, and up and down. Then rinse your mouth with clean water."
• "Never put a foreign object, such as a bean or button, into the ear."

Apparently, improper use of beans was a big problem with schoolchildren of the past.

Here are some more of Charlotte's illustrations...

This next one is interesting. A man is pasting up a sign that states: "SCARLET FEVER WITHIN." Scarlet fever could be fatal before an antibiotic treatment was eventually perfected. It remained a feared infectious disease in the United States through the 1920s and 1930s.