Science Saturday
Today we are looking at a popularized natural history book from our Historical Curriculum Collection, Leaves from Nature’s Story-Book by Mrs. M.A.B. Kelly (Meriba Ada Babcock Kelly) of the State Normal College in Albany, New York. The book was published by the Educational Publishing Company in Boston in 1893. It has many ownership stamps for both a public library school in Milwaukee County and the Milwaukee County Historical Society.
Leaves from Nature’s Story-Book was intended to be a school text book for children. The author includes a preface with “Suggestions to Teachers” about how they need to “make a careful study of each lesson before presenting it to her class as a supplementary exercise.” Kelly’s rationale is that children are so innately interested in the natural world that they will have many questions and the teacher must be prepared to answer them.
The book begins with a note “To the Little People,” where Meriba Ada Babcock Kelly writes:
“The name of this volume is ‘Nature’s Story-Book’ and it is filled with pretty tales about animals, and plants, and stones. Every day that I walked out, I picked up a few of these pretty leaves, until now I have enough of them to make three small volumes for you!”
We only have Volume I here in Special Collections and it is entirely about animals. The book is very charming and does contain a lot of scientific information that is framed in a romantic way (for example: flies are referred to as “two-winged mothers”). There are a couple differences between some of the current names of animals (the horseshoe crab is listed as a king crab), but overall I can see how this book would have been inspiring to young children learning about nature, especially with its numerous lovely illustrations.
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–Sarah, Special Collections Graduate Intern
