Textbook Resources

Textbook usage within public education institutions across the nation became a fundamental resource guide for hundreds of years to students of all ages, referred back to for discussions and aid on any given subject. With only a limited amount of information provided through vocal educational instruction, textbooks have served as helpful, organized units of written plans and lessons that can be examined at any given point by both the student and the teacher/instructor. For the Little Red Schoolhouse this was no exception, as textbooks became one of the most important resources utilized for schoolhouse instruction within Cumberland County, reflecting the changes of public education within early 20th century America.

Today, preserved textbooks from the period of the schoolhouse's operation are currently on display inside the Little Red Schoolhouse and are utilized for educational programming. They serve as a symbol for how education resources were utilized and examined between the late-19th through mid-20th centuries, marking the importance of public education in America. Digitized access to the schoolhouse's textbooks will soon be available through the Ezra Lehman Library. 

Left Image: 1901 textbook called The Students’ Series of English Grammar, Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar, written by Edward Payson Morton and published by Sibley & Company of Boston and Chicago. 

Middle Image: 1902 textbook called Elementary Geography, written by Justin H. Roddy and published by American Book Company of New York, Cincinnati, and Chicago.

Right Image: 1857 textbook called Introduction to the National Arithmetic on the Inductive System Combining the Analytic and Synthetic Methods, written by Benjamin Greenleaf and published by Robert S. Davis & Co. of Boston.