Shaping the Values of Youth: Sunday School Books in 19th Century America

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Resources for Teachers and Scholars

Additional Reading

Collections:
  • Papers of the American Sunday School Union at the Presbyterian Historical Society in Philadelphia (available on microfilm).
  • The New York Public Library's Division of Archives and Manuscripts collection of Methodist Sunday school records from 19th Century and minute-books of the Methodist Branch of the New-York Sunday-School Union Society.
  • The Presbyterian Historical Society also has a good collection of Sunday School Records.
  • American Baptist Historical Society at Colgate Rochester Divinity School in Rochester, New York - Baptist records.
  • Andover-Newton Theological Seminary in Newton Massachusetts - Baptist records.
  • The Rhode Island Historical Society in Providence: records of the Rhode Island Sunday School Union, records of the Providence Association of Sabbath School Teachers.
  • Lovely Land Methodist Museum in Baltimore - minutes of the McKendrean Female Sabbath School Society and of the Asbury Sunday School Society.

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Printed Histories:
  • History of the Brick Presbyterian Church in the City of New York by Shepherd Knapp, New York, 1909.
  • History of the First Baptist Church of Boston by Nathan E. Wood, Philadelphia, 1889.
  • History of St. George's Church in the City of New York by Henry Anstice, New York, 1911.
  • Semi-Centennial of the Sunday School of the First Presbyterian Church of Utica, Utica, N.Y. 1866
  • Ruth Linton's Master's thesis: "To the Promotion and Improvement of Youth: The Brandywine Manufacturers' Sunday School, 1816 - 1840," University of Delaware, 1981.
  • Also by Ruth Linton: "The Brandywine Manufactures' Sunday School: An Adventure in Education in the Early Nineteenth Century" in Delaware History 20, 1983 pp. 168 - 184.
  • Report on the Biographical Research for the Brandywine Manufactures' Sunday School ed. by Sarah H. Heald. Unpublished, at the Hagley Museum.

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Reports of Sunday school societies:
  • American Sunday School Union
  • Philadelphia Sunday and Adult School Union
  • Methodist Episcopal Sunday School Union
  • New York Sunday School Union Society
  • New York Female Union Society for the Promotion of Sabbath Schools
  • Massachusetts Sabbath School Union
  • Illinois State Sunday School Convention

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Periodicals:
  • American Sunday School Magazine
  • Sunday School Journal and Advocate of Christian Education
  • Sunday School Times
  • Sunday School World
  • National Sunday School Teacher
  • Youth's Friend
  • Youth's Penny Gazette
  • Well-Spring
  • Sunday School Advocate
  • Sunday School Visitor
  • Kind Words
  • Sunbeam

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Teaching Guides:
  • C.R. Blackall, Our Sunday School Work
  • W.F. Crafts, The Ideal Sunday School. Boston, 1876
  • W.F. Lloyd, The Teacher's Manual. Philadelphia, 1825
  • New York Sunday School Union Society, Hints on the Establishment and Regulation of Sunday Schools. New York, 1817
  • Frederick A. Packard, The Teacher Taught. Philadelphia, 1839.
  • John Todd, The Sabbath School Teacher. Northampton, Mass, 1837.
  • H. Clay Trumbull, Teaching and Teachers. Philadelphia, 1884.

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Diaries, Autobiographies:
  • The Diary of Michael FLoy, Jr. Bowery Village ed. by Richard Albert Edward Brooks. New Haven, 1941.
  • Caroline Cowles Richards, Village Life in America, 1852 - 1872. New York, 1912.
  • Miron Winslow, Memoir of Mrs. Harriet L. Winslow. New York, 1840.
  • Bradford K. Peirce, One Talent Improved or the Life and Labors of Miss Susan B. Bowler, Successful Sunday School Teacher. New York, 1845.
  • Lewis Ashhurst's Journal. 4 vols. 1834 - 1874. Richard Ashhurst Papers, Historical Society of Pennsylvania.
  • Forty Years' Familiar Letters of James W. Alexander, D.D. ed. by John Hall, New York, 1860.
  • The Autobiography of Bishop Vincent in Northwestern Christian Advocate 58, April 6 - November 2, 1910.

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Secondary Works:
  • Anne M. Boylan, Sunday School: The Formation of An American Institution 1790 - 1880 Yale: New Haven, 1988.
  • Edwin W. Rice, Sunday School Movement, 1780 - 1917, and the American Sunday School Union, 1817 - 1917. Philadelphia, 1917.
  • Marianna C. Brow, Sunday School Movement in America. New York, 1901.
  • The Encyclopedia of Sunday Schools and Religious Education. ed. by John T. McFarland, Benjamin S. Winchester, R. Douglas Fraser, and J. Williams Butcher. 3 vols, New York, 1915.
  • Robert W. Lynn and Elliot Wright, The Big Little School: Sunday Child of American Protestantism. New York, 1971.
  • Ralph R. Smith's Ph.D. dissertation, In Every Destitute Place: The Mission Program of the American Sunday School Union, 1817 - 1834. University of Southern Califrnia, 1973.
  • John Wells Kuykendalls' Southern Enterprize: The Work of National Evangelical Societies in the Antebellum South. Westport, Conn, 1982.
  • E. Morris Fergusson's Historic Chapters in Christian Education in America. New York, 1935.
  • Frank Glenn Lankard's History of the American Sunday School Curriculum. New York, 1927.
  • Addie Grace Wardle, History of the Sunday School Movement in the Methodist Episcopal Church. New York, 1918.
  • Jessie Dell Crawford, Status of the Child in American Baptist Churches. Ph. D. Dissertation, Yale, 1940.
  • Clifton Hartwell Brewer, A History of Religious Education in the Episcopal Church to 1835. New Haven, 1924. Early Episcopal Sunday Schools (1814 - 1865). New York, 1939. Milwaukee, 1933. and Later Episcopal Sunday Schools. New York, 1939.
  • A History of Religious Education in Connecticut to the Middle of the Nineteenth Century by Goerge Stewart, Jr. New Haven, 1924.
  • Thomas Laqueur, Religion and Respectability: Sunday Schools and Working Class Culture, 1780 - 1850. New Haven, 1976.
  • Robert T. Handy, Christian America: Protestant Hopes and Historical Realities. New York, 1971.
  • Carroll Smith Rosenberg, Religion and the Rise of the American City: The New York City Mission Movement, 1812 - 1870. Ithaca, N.Y., 1971.
  • Lois W. Banner, Protestant Crusade: Religious Missions, Benevolence, and Reform in the United States, 1790 - 1840. Dissertation, Columbia University, 1970.
  • Martha Tomhave Blauvelt, Society, Religion and Revivalism: The Second Great Awakening in New Jersey, 1780 - 1830. Dissertation, Princeton University, 1975.
  • Stanley K. Schultz, Culture Factory: Boston Public Schools, 1789 - 1860. New York, 1973.
  • Carl F. Kaestle, Pillars of the Republic: Common Schools and American Society, 1780 - 1860. New York, 1983. and The Evolution of an Urban School System: New York City, 1750 - 1860. Cambridge, Mass., 1973.
  • Peter G. Slater, Children in the New England Mind in Death and in Life. Hamden, Conn., 1977.
  • Paul Boyer, Urban Masses and Moral Order in America, 1820 - 1920. Cambridge, Mass, 1978.
  • Anthony F.C. Wallace, Rockdale: The Growth of an American Villange in the Early Industrial Revolution. New York, 1978.
  • Bruce Laurie, Working People of Philadelphia, 1800 - 1850. Philadelphia, 1980.
  • Daniel Walker Howe, Political Culture of the American Whigs. Chicago, 1979.
  • Daniel T. Rodgers, Work Ethic in Industrial America, 1850 - 1920. Chicago, 1978.
  • Donald M. Scott, From Office to Profession: The New England Ministry, 1750 - 1850. Philadelphia, 1978.
  • Joan Jacobs Brumber, Mission for Life: The Story of the Family of Adoniram Judson. New York, 1980.
  • Bertram Wyatt-Brown, Lewis Tappan and the Evangelical War against Slavery. Cleveland, 1969.
  • Joseph Kett, Rites of Passage: Adolescence in America, 1790 to the Present. New York, 1977.
  • Mary P. Ryan, Cradle of the Middle Class: The Family in Oneida County, New York, 1790 - 1865. New York, 1981.
  • Nancy F. Cott, Bonds of Womanhood: "Woman's Sphere" in New England, 1785 - 1835. New Haven, 1977.
  • Kathryn Kish Sklar, Catharine Beecher: A Study in American Domestiticity. New Haven, 1973.

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On Children's Literature
  • Lyman Abbott. "Jacob Abbott, Friend of Children", in Silhouettes of My Contemporaries. London: np, 1922.
  • Lysla I. Abbott. "Jacob Abbott: A Goodly Heritage". In Hewins Lectures, 1947-1962. Boston: Horn Book, 1963. pp. 129-149
  • Gillian Avery. Behold the Child: American Children and Their Books, 1621-1922. Baltimore, MD; Johns Hopkins University Press, 1994.
  • Jan Bakker. "Summer Reading at Woodlands: A Juvenile Library of the Old South." Children's Literature 9 (1981): 221-231, plus 21 pages.
  • Before Oz: Juvenile Fantasy Stories from Nineteenth-Century America, ed. Mark I. West. Hamden, CT: Archon Books, 1989.
  • Robert Franklin Berman. "The Naive Child and the Competent Child: American Literature for Children and American Culture, 1830-1930." PhD diss. Harvard University, 1978.
  • Jani L. Berry. "Discipline and (Dis)order: Paternal Socialization in Jacob Abbott's Rollo Books." Children's Literature Association Quarterly, 18 (Fall 1993): 100-105
  • Review of Beadle's Dime Books. North American Review 99 (1864): 303-309.
  • Carol Billman. "McGuffey's Readers and Alger's Fiction: The Gospel of Virtue According to Popular Children's Literature." Journal of Popular Culture 11 (1977): 614-619.
  • Jacob Blanck. "A Twentieth-Century Look at Nineteenth-Century Children's Books." In Bibliophile in the Nursery, ed. William Targ. Cleveland, OH: The World Publishing Co., 1957. pp. 427-451
  • John B. Boles. "Jacob Abbott and the Rollo Books: New England Culture for Children." Journal of Popular Culture 6 (1973): 507-528.
  • "Books for Children." Christian Examiner 2 (1825): 291-301.
  • "Books for Children." American Annals of Education 3 (1828): 99- 103.
  • "Books for Children." Christian Examiner 5 (1828): 402-420.
  • "Books for Children." Christian Examiner 8 (March 1830): 22-35.
  • "Books for Our Children." Atlantic Monthly 16 (Dec. 1865): 724- 735.
  • E. Douglas Branch. "The Children's Hour." In The Sentimental Years: 1836-1860. NY: D. Appleton-Century Co., Inc., 1934. Repr. NY: Hill & Wang, 1962.
  • Simon Brown. "What Books Shall I Read?" The Mother's Assistant and the Young Lady's Friend, Feb. 1845: 37-39.
  • Lydia Maria Child. "Advice Concerning Books" and "List of Good Books for Various Ages." In The Mother's Book. Boston: Carter & Hendee, 1831. Repro. Cambridge, MA: Applewood Books, 1989.
  • "Children's Books." Christian Examiner 10 (May 1831): 212-220.
  • Henry Steele Commager. "When Majors Wrote for Minors." Saturday Review May 1952: 10-11.
  • John G. Crandall. "Patriotism and Humanitarian Reform in Children's Literature, 1825-1860." American Quarterly Spring 1969: 3-23.
  • Richard L. Darling. The Rise of Children's Book Reviewing in America. 1865-1881. New York: R.R. Bowker Company, 1968.
  • F.J. Harvey Darton. "Two New Englands: 'Peter Parley' and 'Felix Summerly'." Children's Books in England, 3rd ed. London: Cambridge University Press, 1982.
  • F.J. Harvey Darton. "Peter Parley and the Battle of the Children's Books." The Cornhill Magazine Nov. 1932: 542-58.
  • Sarah Elbert. A Hunger for Home: Louisa May Alcott and Little Women. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1984.
  • Ruth Miller Elson. "American Schoolbooks and 'Culture' in the Nineteenth Century." The Mississippi Valley Historical Review Dec 1959: 411-34.
  • Ruth Miller Elson. Guardians of Tradition: American Schoolbooks of the Nineteenth Century. Lincoln, NB: University of Nebraska Press, 1964.
  • J. Merton England. "The Democratic Faith in American Schoolbooks, 1783-1860." American Quarterly 15 (1963): 191-99.
  • Henry Ford and D. Kenneth Laub. "The McGuffey Readers." In Bibliophile in the Nursery, ed. William Targ. Cleveland, OH: The World Publishing Co., 1957. pp. 417-426
  • Harvey Green. "Scientific Thought and the Nature of Children in America, 1820-1920." In A Century of Childhood. Rochester New York: Margaret Woodbury Strong Museum, 1984.
  • Virginia Haviland. The Travelogue Story Book of the Nineteenth Century. Boston: The Horn Book, Inc., 1950.
  • Caroline M. Hewins. A Mid-Century Child and Her Books New York: Macmillan Company, 1926.
  • T.W. Higginson. "Children's Books of the Year." North American Review Jan. 1866: 236-49.
  • Clifton Johnson. Old-Time Schools and School-books. New York: The Macmillan Company, 1904 [facsimile New York: Dover Press, 1963]
  • Alice M. Jordan. From Rollo to Tom Sawyer, and Other Papers. Boston: The Horn Book, Inc., 1948.
  • "Juvenile Literature." Christian Review Oct 1855: 593-601.
  • Reviews Jacob Abbott: Marco Paul's Voyages and Travels, Harper's Story Books; Carol Kammen. "The McGuffey Readers." Children's Literature 5 (1976): 58-63.
  • R. Gordon Kelly. "American Children's Literature: An Historiographical Review." American Literary Realism, 1870- 1910 6 (1973): 89-108.
  • Harold H. Kolb, Jr. "Why Can't Johnny Learn? (A Hypothetical Review by John Dewey of McGuffey's Fifth Reader)." Journal of Popular Culture 2 (1968): 503-09.
  • Eve Kornfeld and Susan Jackson. "The Female Bildungsroman in Nineteenth- Century America: Parameters of a Vision." Journal of American Culture 10 (1987): 69-75.
  • "Ladies' Commission on Sunday-school Books, The." Old and New May 1870: 709-12.
  • William W. Lawrence. "Rollo and His Uncle George." The New England Quarterly Sept. 1945: 291-302.
  • Stanley W. Lindberg. "Institutionalizing a Myth: The McGuffey Readers and the Self-Made Man." Journal of American Culture 2 (Spring 1979): 71-81.
  • "Literature of Our Sunday-Schools, The." Hours at Home 10 (1870): 293-300; 450-59; 558-67.
  • Anne MacLeod. "Education for Freedom: Children's Fiction in Jacksonian America." Harvard Educational Review, 46 (1976): 425-435.
  • Anne MacLeod. "For the Good of the Country: Cultural Values in American Juvenile Fiction, 1820-1860." Children's Literature 5 (1976): 40-51.
  • Anne MacLeod. A Moral Tale: Children's Fiction and American Culture, 1820-1860. Hamden, CT: Archon Books, The Shoestring Press, 1975.
  • Barbara Maxwell, comp. Checklist of Children's Books 1837-1876. Philadelphia: Free Library of Philadelphia, Central Children's Department, Special Collections, 1975.
  • Gail S. Murray. "Rational Thought and Republican Virtues: Children's Literature, 1789-1820." Journal of the Early Republic, 8 (1988): 159-177.
  • Mary Noel. Villains Galore: The Heyday of the Popular Story Weekly. New York: The Macmillan Company, 1954.
  • Fletcher Osgood. "Jacob Abbott, a Neglected New England Author." The New England Magazine, June 1904: 471-479.
  • Samuel Osgood. "Books for Our Children." Atlantic Monthly (1865): 724-35.
  • Edmund Pearson. Dime Novels; or, Following an Old Trail. Boston: Little, Brown, and Company, 1929.
  • Pat Pflieger. A Visit to Merry's Museum; or, Social Values in a Nineteenth-Century American Periodical for Children. Ph.D. Diss. University of Minnesota, 1987.
  • Samuel Pickering, Jr. "The Grave Leads but to Paths of Glory: Deathbed Scenes in American Children's Books, 1800-1860." Dalhousie Review, 59 (1979): 452-64
  • Jennie Lawrence Pratt. "Jacob Abbott: The Author of the Rollo Books", in Just Maine Folks. Np: 1924.
  • Mary E. Quinlivan. "Race Relations in the Antebellum Children's Literature of Jacob Abbott." Journal of Popular Culture 16 (1982): 27-36.
  • Daniel T. Rodgers. "Socializing Middle-Class Children: Institutions, Fables, and Work Values in Nineteenth-Century America." In Growing Up in America: Children in Historical Perspective, ed. N. Ray Hiner and Joseph M. Hawes. Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press, 1985: 119-132
  • Jean Duncan Shaw. "Children's Fiction and American History." Elementary English (Jan. 1968): 89-94.
  • G. Silver. "Rollo on Rollo by Rollo." The Colophon. New Graphic Series #2 (n.d.): 5-17.
  • Kate Steinway. "Early Nineteenth-century American Children's Books and Their Relationship to Currier & Ives Lithographs." Imprint, 18 (1993): 17-26.
  • Carl Jefferson Weber, comp. A Bibliography of Jacob Abbott. Waterville, ME: Colby College Press, 1948.
  • d'Alte A. Welch. A Bibliography of American Children's Books Printed Prior to 1821. Np: American Antiquarian Society & Barre Publishers, 1922.
  • Mark I. West. "Guilt and Shame in Early American Children's Literature: A Comparison of John S. C. Abbott's The Child at Home and Jacob Abbott's Rollo Books." University of Hartford Studies in Literature 18 (1986): 1-7.
  • Polly L. Whitney. "'If Only Papa Wouldn't Write, How Nice It Would Be': Hawthorne's Phantom Family in the Children's Books." Massachusetts Studies in English, 10 (Spring 1985): 59-79.
  • Bernard Wishy. "Fit for Children to Hear." In The Child and the Republic: The Dawn of Modern American Child Culture. Philadelphia: University of Philadelphia Press, 1972.
  • R. Richard Wohl. "The 'Rags to Riches Story': An Episode of Secular Idealism." In Class, Status and Power, ed. Reinhart Bendix and Seymour M. Lipset. Glencoe, Ill.: The Free Press, 1953.
  • Elizabeth Young. "Juvenile Biographies of the Presbyterian Board of Publication, 1838-1887." Journal of the Presbyterian Historical Society, 33 (1955): 181-197.

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