School Reading By Grades: Baldwin Readers Fourth and Fifth Year by James Baldwin
date: label: date made
content: 1897
name: label: printer
content: American Book Company
notes: label: Description
content: <i>School Reading By Grades: Baldwin Readers Fourth and Fifth Year </i> by James Baldwin is a literary anthology designed to teach proper grammar and vocabulary, as well as to cultivate a taste for literature and appeal to the student’s sense of duty and patriotism. A further goal with this text was to expand knowledge of history, science, and art. Authors include William Blake, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Daniel Webster, and Charles Dickens. One story is titled “The English Slave Boys in Rome” and describes how St. Augustine supposedly converted the 6th Century English to Christianity. The Biblical parables of the Good Samaritan and the Prodigal Son are also included. It makes an interesting comparison to 20th and 21st Century literary textbooks for this age group.
label: Description
content: The 4th and 5th year texts are separated from each other, but bound together in one book. The 4th reader includes a story on the Declaration of Independence and features a black and white engraving of the 1817 John Trumbull painting of the <i>Signing of the Declaration of Independence</i> that was done by engraver E. Heineman and graphic artist E. H. Sison.
label: Description
content: The book contains 208 pages and many black and white illustrations. The front cover features an elaborate floral border. The back cover is imprinted with the printer’s insignia of a lit torch, an open book, and eagle’s wings. The inside front cover page is stamped “Property of East Hempfield School District No. 3.” The reference could be to the town of the same name in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. Student Mazie K. Baker inscribed on the front page of the book.
label: Description
content: James Baldwin (1841-1925) was a leading educator, editor, and author of children’s textbooks on reading. After teaching in the local schools, he established one of the first graded school systems in Indiana in 1870. He also established a library for the use of his pupils that became a model for the state. Baldwin served as the Superintendent of Schools for Huntington, Indiana from 1873-1883. He became an assistant editor of Harper’s periodicals and later joined the editorial department of the American Book Company in New York. Besides compiling several series of standard readers, he authored over 50 books on a variety of subjects.
label: Description
content: The American Book Company was an educational book publisher formed in 1890 and based in New York City that specialized in elementary school, secondary school, and collegiate-level textbooks. The company was absorbed into D. C. Heath in 1981. Any remaining K-12 assets of the American Book Company were acquired by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt in 1995.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: place made
content: United States: New York, New York City
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: 2017.3049.29
label: nonaccession number
content: 2017.3049
label: catalog number
content: 2017.3049.29
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: 7 1/2 in x 5 1/2 in x 1 in; 19.05 cm x 13.97 cm x 2.54 cm