The Independent Third Reader: Containing Simple Illustrated Treatise on Elocution; Choice and Classified Readings; With Full Notes and a Complete Index by J. Madison Watson, American Book Company, c1880 is a text designed for instruction of elocution, pronounciation, and reading. According to the preface, the work is designed for the “period of human life … in which investigation and study first exert their modifying influences upon the almost boundless faith and implicit credulity of childhood….”
Binghamton University Libraries’ Special Collections contains a variety of readers’ series including McGuffey Readers, which are probably the most famous readers of the 19th century, as well as others such as Sanders’, Osgood’s, Town’s, and Russell’s. Readers, used to teach reading and associated skills to schoolchildren, were popular as textbooks in the 19th century and are still in use today.
To see The Independent Third Reader (SPEC COLL PE1117.W37 1880) or any of our readers, visit Special Collections on the second floor of the Bartle Library.
The Independent Third Reader is Featured Book for May
