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.

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 of 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. 

Be still our hearts! We have fallen in love with this woodblock printed paper and scaleboard binding, which seems fitting as the text within features letters on courtship and marriage. #WoodcutWednesday

A Series of letters on courtship and marriage. Hudson [N.Y.] : Printed by Ashbel Stoddard, at his printing-office and book-store, corner of Warren and Second-streets, and sold wholesale and retail., 1804.  127, [1] p. ;  14 cm