Early American Geographies

Abstract

Early American Geographies By JAMES F. CHAMBERLAIN As' teachers of geography, we are prone to believe that the subject is not well taught in the United States, and that progress is slow. This is because our thought is focused upon high and constantly advancing standards, while we are unmindful of the- level from which we started, Although the teacher is superior to the text, the fact remains that in geography, as in other subjects, progress depends, in large measure, upon the book. A careful consideration of · early American geographies will enable us better to understand the growth of our subject , as well as the ·development of our country. One -of the first concerns' of the American colonists was for education, and schools were very early established .- Many of- these were known as · "Dame Schools'" or "Kitchen Schools", because they were conducted by housewives who had the time aild the inclination for the work. Texts were few and were, of necessity , imported. Naturally the geographies published in' Europe gave scant attention to what is now the eastern part of the United States. This was a Source of increasing dissatisfaction to American educators, with the result that educational independence quickly followed' national freedom, and American texts · supplanted those written· abroad. It is an interesting' fact that geography ïo'tind a place in academies and colleges before it did in the common schools, because the subject was not thought to be adapted 'to children. Iu 1751, through the efforts of Benjamin Franklin and others, there was founded in Philadelphia, Franklin's Academy, the first Well-known American institution of its kind. This academy, which · developed Into the University of Pennsylvania, included geography in its course of study. Columbia College, now Columbia University, offered geography as early •as 1754, Harvard was teaching the subject in 1794, and Dartmouth two years later. The first public high sihool to appear, the "English Classical School" in Boston, was opened in 1821, with geography as one of the subjects. of. study. Among the geographies imported from England was William Guthrie's: "A New System of Modern Geography ; or A Geographical Historical and Commercial Grammar and Present State of the Several nations of the World." This work was first printed in London -about 1718. The fir.it American edition, of which the present writer has a copy, was brought out in Philadelphia in 1794. It is in two leather-bound volumes, of encyclopedic proportions. Not a map or a picture, enlivens the pages of either volume, but there is a diagram showing the relative position of the planets with respect to the sun. The absence of: the 'two outermost is explained by the fact that they had not then been discovered. Very much space is given to history , government, education, religion, and so-called curiosities. The United States is presented as a whole, and then as individual states. On page 579 of volume two we read; "Indiana, so-called, is a tract of land lying on the Ohio River, in the state of Virginia . . ." In connection with California , which was then a part of New M1CXiCO, the following staterhent appears : "In California there falls in the morning a great quantity ot clew, which, remaining on the rose leaves, candies, and becomes hard like manna , having all the sweetness of refined sugar, without its whiteness." p. 484. Nearly one-fourth of volume one is devoted to England, and each of the other divisions of the British Isles is given much space. There are occasional touches of cause and consequence , such as the following: "It (the sea) prevents the extremes of heat and cold to which other places, lying in the same degrees of latitude, a're subject." p. 219. (23) The American edition of Guthrie's geography was for general readers, rather than for students, although it was used in colleges. It was published on the subscription plan, and the names of all subscribers appear in volume two. Among them are George Washington, Mrs. Washington, Lawrence Washington, De Witt Clinton, Samuel Otis, Jeclediah Morse, and many other familiar names. In 1809 there was printed in New York, the first American edition improved . The work was in two volumes , but much...