Home and School Speaker: A Practical Manual of Delsarte Exercises and Elocution published by nd Elocution W. B. Conkey Company
date: label: date made
content: 1897
name: label: publisher
content: W. B. Conkey Company
notes: label: Description
content: This charming manual contains “instructions for the cultivation and preservation of the voice and use of gestures.” It features many short selections for reading and recitation. Most of the entries are anonymous rhyming verses, indicative of what passed for conventional wisdom at the time. Some selections were reprinted from popular periodicals, such as <i>Harper’s Young People.</i> A few are taken from acclaimed poets (e.g., William Wordsworth) or speeches (e.g. Walter Scott).
label: Description
content: Pages 3–16 contain delightful illustrations of a young woman in a flowing gown adopting various theatrical poses. The front cover contains a color drawing of two little girls in proper evening dress with long white gloves and fans. The back cover has a black and white illustration of five young girls musing over a book in a classroom. These illustrations were very typical of the late 19th Century.
label: Description
content: The W. B. Conkey Company was formed in Chicago in 1877. It later built a plant in 1897 at 617 Conkey Street, Hammond, Indiana. At the time, it was one of the most modern, largest, and best equipped printing plants in the world. Conkey won the coveted commission to print the <i>Official Directory of the World’s Columbian Exposition</i> held in Chicago in 1893. It also published the very first <i>Sears Roebuck Catalog</i> in 1898. After the original owner and president died in 1923, his son Henry P. Conkey took over controlling interest of the company. Numerous types of catalogs and books were printed at the plant, including textbooks, biographies, encyclopedias, fiction, and Bibles. The publishing house was sold to Rand McNally in 1949.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: place made
content: United States: Illinois, Chicago
setName: label: See more items in
content: Home and Community Life: Education
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Gift of Dr. Richard Lodish American School Collection
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: 2017.3049.20
label: nonaccession number
content: 2017.3049
label: catalog number
content: 2017.3049.20
objectType: label: Object Name
content: book
label: Object Type
content: instructional materials
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: paper (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: ink (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: printed (overall production method/technique)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 9 in x 7 in x 3/4 in; 22.86 cm x 17.78 cm x 1.905 cm