Kilner, Dorothy. The History of a Great Many Little Boys and Girls.Keene, N.H.: John Prentiss, 1807. English author Dorothy Kilner (1755-1836) targeted these stories specifically to young readers between the ages of four and five. Although her audience is young, Kilner’s subjects are very serious: one young boy who refuses to wear clothes is beaten ...
Brown, Frances. Sketches from Nature, for My Juvenile Friends.Cleveland: Mrs. H.F.M. Brown; Cincinnati: Longley Brothers; Boston: Bela Marsh, 1858. This is a remarkable collection of short stories that were clearly the product of the reformist press that flourished in Boston, Cincinnati, and Cleveland shortly before the Civil War. Although the wood-engraved illustrations look quite conventional--here is ...
Blossom and Fruit. A Choice Collection of Hebrew Texts for Jewish Public and Private Instruction=Tsits u-Feri. Compiled and published by Julius Katzenberg. New York: Industrial School, Hebrew Orphan Asylum, 1882. AAS certainly has Hebrew texts geared to Christian divinity students, but this text is geared to the needs of Jewish children and youth. AAS has just ...
Bible Characters, Instructive and Entertaining Compiled for the use of Young Children (3rded) on a sheet with History of Haman and Mordecai compiled by a Friend to Youth. New York: Mahlon Day, 1837. This single sheet printing shows the way in which multiple-page books were laid out (or composed) during the nineteenth century. Such sheets ...
Captain Gregg and His Dog.Providence: H.H. Brown, 1831. This is a scarce copy of an adventure story about an injured soldier and his loyal dog who survive the perils of the American Revolution in upstate New York. I was able to successfully bid on this book at a recent Swann auction through the kind assistance of ...
The AAS curatorial team is just delighted by the response to our 6th annual Adopt-a-Book event, with over half of the selected “orphans” already adopted by generous supporters. Thank you! Below, please find one of the few titles for children still available from the online catalog as well as a railroad map from the cartography ...
Abbott, Jacob. Juno on a Journey.The Juno Stories.New York: Dodd & Mead, ca. 1870. Jacob Abbott’s Juno was among the first female African American protagonists of a children’s book series. In this book, Juno is enlisted to take a little white boy named Georgie on a train journey by the boy’s father. During this early fictional ...
Hall, William. The Encyclopaedia of English Grammar: Designed for the Use of Schools. Wheeling, Va.: John B. Wolff, 1849. Like newspapers, textbooks were frequently among the earliest imprints issued in regional outposts like Wheeling, Virginia (later West Virginia). Such is the case with William Hall’s Encyclopaedia of English Grammar, which was first copyrighted in nearby Ohio. ...
Grandmamma Easy’s Joseph and His Brethren. Albany: William B. Sprague, Jr., ca. 1840-1860. This picture book history of the Old Testament hero Joseph gives the modern reader a precious glance into popular mid-nineteenth-century American iconography portraying the Middle East. Jacob’s family is seen here nestled among palm trees, pyramids, and obelisks, with camels in tow. Albany ...
Nineteenth-century American publisher McLoughlin Brothers pioneered the use of chromolithography in the production of color picture books starting in the 1860s. Until that point, most children’s books were illustrated with wood engravings that were locked into the printing press form along with set type. Coloring these images generally entailed using hand-colored stencils or employing a ...
Edgeworth, Maria. Moral Tales for Young People.New York: George Long, 1821. It is always gratifying to discover another edition of Maria Edgeworth’s popular Moral Tales that is new to AAS. George Long (1771?-1843) produced a steady output of textbooks and children’s books, many of which were written by British and European authors, including Miss Edgeworth. Interestingly, ...
Drury, Anna H. The Blue Ribbons: A Story of the Last Century. Boston: Whittemore, Niles and Hall, 1856. This is truly a mid-nineteenth-century creation: a fairy tale set in the eighteenth century! Alexis, a young boy growing up in Louis XIV’s France, encounters a beautiful and benevolent female fairy in the forest—who turns out to be ...
Davis, Caroline E. Kelly. Ruth Chenery. Boston: Henry Hoyt, ca. 1867. This comic frontispiece captures the embarrassment of young Ruth Chenery; the well-intentioned young woman made a pudding only to discover that she had used a cracked and hopelessly damaged dish, and she receives a sound scolding from her maiden Aunt Keziah. The struggle of high-spirited ...
Byerly, Stephen. Byerly’s New American Spelling-Book. Philadelphia: M’Carty & Davis, 1830. This lovely wood engraving of the exotic Caribbean parrot fish is taken from a speller written by Quaker school teacher Stephen Byerly (c. 1797-1850). His spelling and reading lessons are punctuated with clear illustrations of animals both common and uncommon to his young readers ...
Art in the Nursery. Pictures for Baby to Draw. And Pictures for Baby to Laugh At. Boston: D. Lothrop & Co., ca. 1879. This small oblong (5 ¼ x 7 ½ inch) book imitates in miniature the format of drawing books for older children and youth. The chromolithographed cover depicts boys and girls together creating artwork ...
