X is for... (How alphabet books dealt with the letter X before x-rays and xylophones.)

Public Domain Review ^ | May 2, 2024 | Adam Green

[edwinland]

X is for...

In 1895, the physicist Wilhelm Röntgen discovered X-rays, a groundbreaking moment in medical history which would lead to myriad improvements to people’s health. Perhaps one overlooked benefit though was in relation to mental health, specifically of those tasked with making alphabet books. How did they represent the letter X before X-rays? Xylophones, which have also been a popular choice through the twentieth century to today, are mysteriously absent in older works. Perhaps explained by the fact that, although around for millennia, the instrument didn't gain popularity in the West (with the name of “xylophone”) until the early twentieth century. So to what solutions did our industrious publishers turn?

As we see below, in addition to drawing on names — be it historical figures, plants, or animals, all mostly of a Greek bent (X being there much more common) — there's also some more inventive approaches. And some wonderfully lazy ones too.

Xerxes, Xantippe, and more...

As a figure of note, you might hope it would be your epic accomplishments that would lead to your name being uttered by students for millennia to come — not for the coincidence of the tricky letter with which your name began. But so it was for the Persian king Xerxes, who in the field of nineteenth-century alphabet books achieved what he could never quite achieve in fifth-century-BC Athens: domination. Though there was perhaps some solace in that he was likely the very first historical figure of which many a child would learn.

[SunkenCiv]