African American Religious Childhood Representation Tim’s Temper Illustrated Gospel Booklet 1957

June Muller African American Religion

Pamphlets

Muller, June. Tim’s Temper (1957) presents an illustrated Christian instructional narrative centered on African American childhood and family life within mid-twentieth-century religious publishing. Produced in Wichita, Kansas, the booklet supports research into African American visual representation, Christian pedagogy, and postwar cultural constructions of Black family and moral development. At a time when Black figures were often marginalized or stereotyped in religious media, the work places a Black child and his घरेलestic environment at the center of moral storytelling, aligning spiritual instruction with everyday lived experience.
Muller, June. Tim’s Temper: An Illustrated Gospel Story Booklet. Wichita, Kansas: Living Stories, Inc., 1957. Octavo. Illustrated wrappers. The booklet consists of sequential full-color illustrations depicting a young Black boy in domestic and interpersonal settings, including a portrait view, sweeping a floor, reading aloud to an older woman seated in a rocking chair, and interacting with another boy in scenes of conflict and reconciliation. A concluding composition presents two boys with an adult woman in a frontal grouping, emphasizing family authority and resolution. The imagery focuses on gesture, posture, and facial expression to convey emotional development and behavioral correction, while interior settings and clothing situate the figures within a working- to middle-class domestic environment. The narrative structure integrates moral instruction with scenes of literacy, discipline, and play.
Illustrated booklet. Original wrappers. Octavo format. Light edge wear and surface soiling; overall good condition. Produced during a period of expanding but still limited representation of African Americans in children’s and religious print culture, the booklet provides direct visual evidence of efforts to incorporate Black childhood into evangelical teaching materials, offering value for the study of race, religion, and visual culture in the United States.

Item #22943

Price: $285.00