This paper looks at how prehistory was portrayed and taught in Spanish school books in four periods (1880–1920; 1920–36; 1936–75; 1975 onwards). Through the first three periods the scientific advances of archaeology can be seen to enter books often only after a time lag of decades, and only after the dominance of scripture for human ‘origins’ gave way to secular versions of history. But until the death of Franco, there was a strong tradition of emphasising nationalistic sentiments of heroic resistance and positive characteristics of the Spanish’ race’ while concentrating on events and the deeds of individuals, usually military or political. This is graphically demonstrated with illustrations from textbooks. Since 1975 school books have changed radically. This is seen in the shift in illustrative teaching materials, from reconstructed scenes of political events to maps and pictures of source materials.