The American Child’s Pictorial History of the United States — Samuel G. Goodrich, c. 1873, E.H. Butler & Co. (Antique Schoolbook)

Chapter VI opens with this sentence:

“America was thus discovered by Columbus in the year 1492, less than four hundred years ago.”

Less than four hundred years. That places the writing of this text in the 1870s or earlier — a moment when the Civil War had just ended, Reconstruction was underway, and American children were being handed books like this one to learn who they were and where they came from.

This is The American Child’s Pictorial History of the United States by Samuel G. Goodrich, published by E.H. Butler & Co. of Philadelphia, circa 1873. Goodrich — who also wrote under the pen name Peter Parley — was one of the most prolific and widely read authors of children’s educational literature in 19th-century America. His school histories were used in classrooms across the country for decades.

The interior is illustrated with engravings throughout. Chapter VI includes a full engraving captioned “Indian Prepared for a War-Dance” — a document of how Indigenous peoples were depicted in American schoolbooks of the era, rendered in the visual language of the period with complete unselfconsciousness. The text surrounding it is equally revealing: a primary source for understanding what American children were taught about their country’s history in the years immediately following the Civil War.

The back cover carries the full Approved School Books catalog — Goodrich’s complete series of school histories, Mitchell’s School Geographies (New Series and original), Sargent and May’s readers — a snapshot of the American educational publishing industry in the 1870s.

The binding is the characteristic dark cloth-over-board construction of mid-to-late 19th century schoolbooks — built to survive a classroom, which this one did. The spine shows honest wear. The cover boards are intact. The pages are complete and legible throughout.

• Title: The American Child’s Pictorial History of the United States
• Author: Samuel G. Goodrich
• Publisher: E.H. Butler & Co., Philadelphia
• Edition: c. 1873
• Illustrations: Engravings throughout, including “Indian Prepared for a War-Dance”
• Back cover: Full Approved School Books catalog — Goodrich and Mitchell series
• Binding: Dark cloth over boards, teal spine
• Condition: Good for age — spine wear, boards intact, pages complete and legible
• One available