An 8x10 sketchbook (for all ages!) for illustrating your own personal collection of curiosities!   The pages of this perfect-bound (think coloring book) sketchbook are printed on a very nice 55 lb paper, but markers and paint WILL bleed through. Good old pencils and color pencils are the way to go! There is a brief history of curious collections and a "How to Use this Book" page, and then 98 pages of frames and containers with labels ready to be filled with your child's creativity. A Bit of History People have been collecting interesting objects and pieces of the natural world since the days of ancient Rome when the temples were used to house various treasures gathered from the far corners of the Roman Empire. In the 1400s, European explorers began to venture further beyond their borders as they entered what we now call the "Age of Exploration" (from the 1400s through the 1600s). On their travels, they collected samples from the new (to them) lands and when they returned, displayed them in "cabinets" (Which were small rooms, not the things with shelves and doors we think of now.) for all to view. These collections ranged from small ones that could be contained in a box or a cabinet to enormous collections that filled whole rooms (often called "wonder-rooms").