We shared this sweet scaleboard binding a few weeks ago and our conservation staff were horrified by the 1960s-era repair that was visible on the front cover. So here it is again, fresh from the lab, looking so much better! #FlashbackFriday
Here’s the text from the original post:
We love the decorated paper and scaleboard binding on our copy of John Witherspoon’s A Series of Letters on Education (New York, 1797).
Witherspoon, who was the president of Princeton College in 1797, was an avowed and determined disciplinarian. In a Series of Letters, he recommends parents “begin the establishment of authority” at the age of eight or nine months, and goes on to say “Do not imagine I mean to bid you use the rod at that age; on the contrary, I mean to prevent the use of it in a great measure, and to point out a way by which children of sweet and easy tempers may be brought to such a habit of compliance, as never to need correction at all.”
We find it interesting that the work was issued in such a tiny format, as though it were meant for the children themselves and not their parents. #MiniatureMonday
Witherspoon, John. A series of letters on education. New-York : printed by J. Buel, for C. Davis. 1797. 108 p. ; 10 cm.
