[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