When I Was a Child of Other Lands

when i was a girl in switzerland

Yesterday, I happened upon a recent post by the small, but fascinating blog, the Victorian era, about a book called When I Was a Girl in Holland, which detailed life for a girl in 1880s Holland. I used my Googlefu and not only discovered this book, but other books in a series of books titled CHILDREN OF OTHER LANDS:

There are many books about the children of other countries, but no other group like this, with each volume written by one who has lived the foreign child life described, and learned from subsequent experience in this country how to tell it in a way attractive to American children — and in fact to Americans of any age.

Apparently, the series was published from the 1880s to well into the 1930s, which is fascinating to ponder: were these tools to facilitate the “melting pot” of American culture, or were they merely curiosity pieces for Anglo-Saxon American children? Most of the titles are in the public domain, and I’ve linked to them, but those that are not are probably available in secondhand bookshops, online, or in libraries.

WHEN I WAS A BOY IN CHINA By Yan Phou Lee

WHEN I WAS A GIRL IN ITALY By Marietta Ambrosi

WHEN I WAS A BOY IN JAPAN By Sakae Shioya

WHEN I WAS A BOY IN GREECE By George Demetrios

WHEN I WAS A BOY IN PALESTINE By Mousa J. Kaleel

WHEN I WAS A BOY IN BELGIUM By Robert Jonckheere

WHEN I WAS A BOY IN RUSSIA By Vladimir De Bogory Mokrievitch

WHEN I WAS A BOY IN ROUMANIA By Dr. J. S. Van Teslaar

WHEN I WAS A GIRL IN HOLLAND By Cornelia De Groot

WHEN I WAS A GIRL IN MEXICO By Mercedes Godoy

WHEN I WAS A BOY IN NORWAY By John Oscar Hall

WHEN I WAS A GIRL IN ICELAND By Hólmfríður Árnadóttir

WHEN I WAS A BOY IN PERSIA By Youel B. Mirza

WHEN I WAS A GIRL IN SWITZERLAND By S. Louise Patteson

WHEN I WAS A BOY IN DENMARK By H. Trolle-Steenstrup

WHEN I WAS A BOY IN INDIA By Satyananda Roy

WHEN I WAS A BOY IN TURKEY By Ahmed Sabri Bey

WHEN I WAS A GIRL IN FRANCE By Georgette Beuret

WHEN I WAS A BOY IN ARMENIA By Manoog Der Alezanian

WHEN I WAS A GIRL IN SWEDEN, By Anna-Mia Hertzman

WHEN I WAS A BOY IN KOREA, By Hhan New

WHEN I WAS A GIRL IN HUNGARY, By Elizabeth Pongracz-Jacobi

WHEN I WAS A BOY IN ENGLAND By Ivan Gerould Grimshaw

WHEN I WAS A GIRL IN WALES By Maude Morgan

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4 replies on “When I Was a Child of Other Lands”
  1. says: 19thcentury

    Hi Edwardian Promenade, thank you for linking back! Don’t you love these books? I thought they were amazingly charming? I hope your readers will read them all, I know I’ll certainly do my best 🙂

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