Claes Van Visscher. London Bridge. (1616)

Many children’s nursery rhymes have a long and at least partially recorded history. For example, English-speaking children and adults have been singing “London Bridge is Falling Down” since before the first known written version in 1744.*

Two important scholars and collectors of children’s rhymes, Iona and Peter Opie, published many collections and annotated compilations of children’s games, rhymes, chants, playground games and stories.  Their personal collection of 22,000 items is now in the Bodleian Library at Oxford University.

Part of that extraordinary collection is available at UBC Library on microfiche. Unit 1 and Unit 2 , “Stories pre-1850”, are available at Koerner Library, Level 2. Microforms may be read, printed or saved to a flash drive. Reference and Microform open hours.

Koerner Library Microform Hours   |     Information about Microforms

* Opie, Iona Archibald, and Peter Opie. The Oxford Dictionary of Nursery Rhymes. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1997.*

Opie Collection on Microfilm, Units 1 and 2
Opie Collection of Children’s Literature: a guide to the microfiche collection

Image Credit: Claes Van Visscher, London Bridge (1616)