Old Time Schools And School Books (1917)

OLD - TIME iflOOLS AND SCHOOL-BOOKS By CLIFTON JOHNSON WITH MANY ILLUSTRATIONS COLLECTED BY THE AUTHOR THE MACMILLAN COMPANY LONDON j MACMILLAN CO., LTD. 1917 All rights reserved . COPYRIGHT, 1904, BY THIS, MACMILLAN COMPANY. Set up and electrotyped. Published April, 904 Reprinted March, 1917. A CONSIDERABLE portion of the material included in this volume was first published in The New England M gw xme, The Congregational-1st, Prank Leslies Popular Monthly, The Interior, The Springfield Republican Good Housekeeping and The Outlook. Norwood Press 7. S. Cubing Co. Berwick Smith Introductory Note THE contrast between the dainty picture books that are provided to entice the school children of the present along the paths of knowledge, and the sparsely illustrated volumes conned by the little folk of two or three generations ago, is very great and yet the old books seemed beautiful to the children then, and the charm all comes back when a person of middle age or beyond happens on one of these humble friends of his youth. What an aroma of the far-gone days of childhood hovers in the yellow pages The scenes in the schoolroom rise in the memory, one is young again, and has in gentle illusion the same feelings and the same juvenile companions as of old. But the pleasure of seeing the books of our schooldays is seldom experienced for, once their work was done, they received scant care, and most of the multitude that were printed have perished utterly. The wear and tear of use and the acci dents and exigencies of time have made way with them, and to-day one could hardly find the books he studied as a child save by long and patient search, and perhaps some of them not at all. My vi Introductory Noteown collection of school-books has been largely gathered by exploring the nooks and corners of the old bookshops from New England to South Caro lina but many things I could not get, and I have been greatly aided in compiling this volume by the collections of various individuals and institutions. I am especially grateful to the American Antiqua rian Society of Worcester the Essex Institute of Salem, the Deerfield Museum, the Connecticut His torical Society, and to Mr. Albert C Bates of Hart ford, and Mr. George A. Plimpton of New York, I also am much indebted to the Henry Barnard Collection, now at Hartford, but probably soon to be sold and transferred elsewhere a collection which includes the American publications used in our schools from the beginnings down to 1850 more completely than any other in existence, My readers will doubtless notice that I have dwelt on the educational history of Massachusetts rather than on that of any of its neighbors. This I have done because it seems to me to possess un rivalled interest Massachusetts has always been a pioneer in educational experiments, and where it has led the way the sister states have followed, Its experience has been a constant aid to thern and the attention it has given to education has always been far above the average for the whole country. CLIFTON JOHNSON. HADX. EY, MASSACHUSETTS. Contents Chapter Page I. Beginnings ....... I II. Colonial Schools of the Eighteenth Century . . 29 III. The New England Primer .... 69 IV. The District Schools 100 V. Grammar Schools and Academies . . 135 VI. Fly-leaf Scribblings . . . . . .151 VII. Noah Webster and his Spelling-book . . .167 Vlll. Other Spelling-books 185 IX. Primary Readers . . . . ..233 X. Advanced Readers . . . . . .265 XI. Arithmetics . . . . . . .301 XII. The First American Geography . . . .318 XIII. . Later Geographies . . . . . - 337 XIV. Grammars, Histories, and Minor Text-books . 363 vii t Two Illustrations selected from one hun dred and sixty similar pictures in Paul Pres tons Book of Gym nasties, 1847. A Whale. From Comlys A New Spelling-book 1 806. List of Illustrations NOTE...