{"id":53,"date":"2010-11-10T13:18:02","date_gmt":"2010-11-10T13:18:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rring.wp.trincoll.edu\/?p=53"},"modified":"2011-12-13T20:48:54","modified_gmt":"2011-12-13T20:48:54","slug":"the-first-textbook-for-colonial-american-children","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/rring\/2010\/11\/10\/the-first-textbook-for-colonial-american-children\/","title":{"rendered":"The first textbook for colonial American children"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>[Posted by Michael Day]<\/span><\/p>\n

As an independent researcher, writer and historian not affiliated with Trinity, I really appreciate the opportunity of using the Watkinson.<\/span> <\/span>My special area of interest is early 19<\/span>th<\/sup><\/span> century education, and particularly the culture of the one-room schoolhouse. <\/span> <\/span>Exploring the collection of education materials originally developed by Henry Barnard has been a wonderful experience for me and tremendously helpful. Barnard (1811-1900), was a Hartford native, a prolific writer and an internationally recognized advocate for improvement of the public schools.<\/span> <\/span>He recognized the importance of looking to the past as a way of documenting our progress, and in this spirit developed an outstanding collection of early American schoolbooks, a collection now housed in the Watkinson Library.<\/span> <\/span> <\/span>One special treasure that I’ve found is a 1737 edition of <\/span>The New England Primer<\/em><\/span>.<\/span> <\/span>The book is tiny; barely the size of\u00a0my hand.<\/span> <\/span>It\u2019s battered and missing several pages, but its significance is immense.<\/span> <\/span>This is one of the earliest known copies of what is arguably <\/span>one of the most important <\/span>books in American history.<\/span> <\/span>The <\/em><\/span>New England<\/em><\/span> <\/span>Primer, <\/em><\/span>in countless editions, dominated American education throughout the 18<\/span>th<\/sup><\/span> century, and its influence <\/span>remained strong until well after the Civil War.<\/span> <\/span>Several other 18<\/span>th<\/sup><\/span> and early 19<\/span>th<\/sup><\/span> century editions are included in the Library\u2019s holdings. <\/span> <\/span>Looking at these <\/span>The New<\/em><\/span> <\/span>England Primers<\/em><\/span> today, we can appreciate, just as Henry Barnard intended, how far education has come since those early days.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>[Curator’s note]<\/span><\/p>\n

With the book is an envelope, bearing the following note: “The oldest Primer in Papa’s collection 1737 with photographic title-page put in by Paul Ford May 1897”<\/span><\/p>\n

The note was undoubtedly written by one of Henry Barnard’s five children, and “Paul Ford” must have been Paul Leicester Ford (1865-1902), an historian and novelist (and a fascinating figure in his own right), who published many works on early America, including The New-England primer; a history of its origin and development; with a reprint of the unique copy of the earliest known edition and many facsimile illustrations and reproductions<\/em> (1897).\u00a0 The earliest known copy, dated 1727 and in very poor condition (these were literally read to death), is at the New York Public Library.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[Posted by Michael Day] As an independent researcher, writer and historian not affiliated with Trinity, I really appreciate the opportunity of using the Watkinson. My special area of interest is early 19th century education, and particularly the culture of the one-room schoolhouse. Exploring the collection of education materials originally developed by Henry Barnard has been […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":122,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[5],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/rring\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/rring\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/rring\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/rring\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/122"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/rring\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=53"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/rring\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":168,"href":"https:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/rring\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53\/revisions\/168"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/rring\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=53"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/rring\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=53"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/rring\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=53"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}