Description: This photograph shows the front of the William Holmes McGuffey House, located in Oxford, Ohio. William Holmes McGuffey (1800-1873) was a Miami University faculty member in 1836 when he compiled the first edition of the McGuffey Eclectic Reader in this house. His Reader taught lessons in reading, spelling, and civic education by using memorable stories of honesty, hard work, thrift, personal respect, and moral and ethical standards alongside illustrative selections from literary works. The six-edition series increased in difficulty and was developed with the help of his brother Alexander Hamilton McGuffey. After the Civil War the Readers were the basic schoolbooks in thirty-seven states. By 1920 an estimated 122 million copies had been sold, reshaping American public school curriculum and becoming one of the nation's most influential publications. McGuffey built this brick home in 1833. In 1958, Miami University purchased it from the Wallace P. Roudebush family, and it was endowed by Emma Gould Blocker to serve as a museum of University history in honor of McGuffey's legacy. The museum opened to the public in 1960, and the house was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1966. This image of the McGuffey House was among the photographs produced by the Federal Works Progress Administration (WPA) between 1935 and 1943. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: AL06390
Subjects: McGuffey, William Holmes, 1800-1873; Architecture--Ohio; Oxford (Ohio); McGuffey readers; United States. Work Progress Administration; National Historic Landmarks Program (U.S.)
Places: Oxford (Ohio); Butler County (Ohio)
 

Description: Illustration from an early edition of a McGuffey's Reader, from "Pathways of Progress, A Short History of Ohio," by David Bowman, 1943. McGuffey's Reader was a series of textbooks written by William McGuffey during the mid-nineteenth century. McGuffey gained prominence as a professor of mental and moral philosophy at Miami University and later the University of Virginia. The McGuffey's Reader became the standardized reading text for most schools across the United States during the mid to late nineteenth century. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: AL04139
Subjects: Cultural Ohio--Literary Ohio; McGuffey readers; McGuffey, William Holmes, 1800-1873; Education--Ohio
Places: Tuscarawas County (Ohio)
 

Description: Caption reads: "Wm. H McGuffey Home. Mt. Auburn." William Holmes McGuffey, who was from Tuscarawas County, Ohio, was a professor at Miami University from 1826 to 1836. Between 1836 and 1845 he served as president of three Ohio institutions: Cincinnati College, Ohio University and Woodward College in Cincinnati. In 1845 McGuffey became a professor at the University of Virginia, where he taught until his death in 1873. He is best known as the author of the popular series of children's textbooks called McGuffey's Readers. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: SA1039AV_B02F01_022_1
Subjects: McGuffey, William Holmes, 1800-1873; Mount Auburn (Cincinnati, Ohio); Building--Ohio--Cincinnati; Architecture--Ohio--Cincinnati--Pictorial works.
Places: Cincinnati (Ohio); Hamilton County (Ohio)