deposit of titles and copies of the several books in the office of
the Clerk of the District Court. At first such deposits were made in
Columbus, Ohio, but later in Cincinnati. When Congress organized the
Copyright Bureau in Washington, the several clerks were required to send
to the Library of Congress all the sample copies deposited; but these
had been carelessly kept and many were lost. A duplicate set was for
years required to be sent to the Smithsonian Institution in Washington.
These were also passed into the custody of the Librarian of Congress;
but this collection had been carelessly preserved and the files of the
McGuffey Readers at Washington are now quite defective for the earliest
issues. The Library seems to have no copy of any number of the first
edition except possibly the Second and Fourth. The copy of the Second
was deposited December 12, 1836. The Fourth bears date of July, 1837.
All the other early copies found in that library are of later dates and
are "Revised and Improved."
[Early Engravings]
It may be well to indicate in a general way the progress that has been
made in illustrating schoolbooks. The first editions of the McGuffey
Readers as issued in 1836 and 1837 did not contain a single original
engraving. All seem to have been copied from English books. The nice
little boys wear round-about jackets with wide, white ruffled collars
at the neck. The proper little girls have scoop bonnets and conspicuous
pantalets. Most of the men wear knee breeches. The houses shown have the
thatched roofs of English cottages. In one picture a boy has a regular
cricket bat. Other schoolbooks of that date show similar appropriations
of English engravings; but even at that time there were a few wood
engravers in America. When the second general revision was made in 1843
some original illustrations appeared and in the edition of 1853 notice
was given on the title page that the engravings were copyright property
that must not be used by others.
As pictures are closely studied by children, some of the users of these
early books may remember the cut showing vividly the dangers of "whale
catching." Two boats are thrown high in the air by one sweep of the
animal's tail and one seaman is shown head downward still in the boat.
Another represented Jonah being cast overboard from the ship toward the
whale below whose mouth is manifestly large enough to accommodate Jonah.
But the engravings in this edition of 1853 had no considerable artistic
quality and they were very coarsely engraved. In 1863 came the first
employment of a genuine artist in wood engraving. This was Mr. E.J.
Whitney who had made a reputation by work done for New York publishers.
His engravings were to take the place of some then in the books and
their sizes were precisely determined. The drawings were most carefully
made by Mr. Herrick with pencil on the whitened boxwood blocks, and sent
to the publisher for examination. These, when approved, were returned to
the engraver who followed precisely the lines of the drawing. When the
engraving was finished, a carefully rubbed proof on India paper was sent
to the publisher. If this was satisfactory, the block was delivered
and from it an electrotype was made for printing. The block itself was
preserved as an original. Mr. Whitney's work was thoroughly good. He
was a wood engraver of the old school.
[New Processes]
When the revision of 1878 was decided on, the publishers of the
McGuffey Readers realized that much improvement must be made in the
illustrations. About this time the magazines were placing great stress
upon pictorial work and a new school of engravers came into existence.
The wood engravers had already departed from the painful reproduction of
each line of a pencil drawing and had become skilled in representing
tints of light and shade if placed on the whitened block with a brush.
This gave greater freedom of interpretation to the engraver. The next
step was to have the drawing made large and reproduced on the block by
photography. By this method most of the engravings were made for the
edition of 1878. Care was taken to employ artists of reputation and the
engravings were usually signed by the artist and by the engraver.
Before the last edition came out in 1901, photo-engraving had nearly
supplanted wood engraving. By this process the artist's drawing with
the brush is reproduced in fine tints which, when well engraved and
carefully printed, produce effective results. Pen and ink drawings are
also reproduced in exact facsimile. By this process the hand work of
the engraver is nearly eliminated. The blocks are sometimes retouched
to produce effects not attained by the process work. The skill of the
artist in making the drawing thus becomes all important.
[Later Inventions]
The introduction of color work in the schoolbooks intended for young
children resulted from the invention of the three-color plates. From
nature, or from a colored painting, three photographs are taken--one
excluding all but the yellow rays of light, one for the red rays, and
one for the blue. From these photographs three tint blocks are made
which to the eye in many cases look exactly alike. From one of these
an impression is made with yellow ink, exactly over this the red plate
prints with red ink and this is followed by an impression from the blue
plate. If the effects of the color screens of the camera are exactly
reproduced by the printer's inks and with exactly the right amount of
ink, the result is wonderfully satisfactory.
What are the qualities in these McGuffey Eclectic Readers that won for
them through three-quarters of a century such wide and constant use?
[Character Building]
The best answer to this question may be drawn from the many newspaper
articles which appeared in Western and Southern papers after the death
of one of the authors. There is general recognition on the part of the
writers of these articles that while the books served well their purpose
of teaching the art of reading, their greatest value consisted in the
choice of masterpieces in literature which by their contents taught
morality, and patriotism and by their beauty served as a gateway to pure
literature. One editor, who used these books in his school career, said,
"Thousands of men and women owe their wholesome views of life, as well
as whatever success they may have attained to the wholesome maxims and
precepts found on every page of these valuable books. The seed they
scattered has yielded a million-fold. All honor to the name and memory
of this excellent and useful man."
[What Constitutes Real Value]
One of the wise men of the olden time cared not who wrote the laws if he
might write their songs. Among a people devoid of books the folk-songs
are early lodged firmly in the mind of every child. They influence his
whole life. The modern schoolbooks--particularly the readers--furnish
the basis of the moral and intellectual training of the youth in every
community. The McGuffey Readers, from their own peculiar inherent
qualities, retained their hold upon the schools until in some states
laws were passed which in their operation caused schoolbooks to be
regarded as commodities estimated almost solely upon the cost of paper,
printing and binding. The value of these material things can easily be
ascertained and compared; but unless the print carries the lessons that
help to form a life the paper is wasted and the pupil's most valuable
time is misspent. The teaching power of a schoolbook cannot be weighed
in the grocer's scales nor measured with a pint cup. In the field open
to free and constant competition, the books best suited to the wants of
each community will in the end succeed. It was under such conditions
that the McGuffey Readers won and held their place in the schools.
End of Project Gutenberg's A History of the McGuffey Readers, by Henry H. Vail