SCENES IN NATURE: THE POLITICS OF GEOLOGY BOOKS AND THE MASSACHUSETTS BOARD OF EDUCATION’S THE SCHOOL LIBRARY IN 1840

During the late 18th and early 19th centuries, European authors produced popularized science books aimed at a nontechnical audience of children and women. Written in an easily accessible language, the aim of these works was to simultaneously amuse and inform. The use of conversation (written in a common vernacular), and the location of the story’s action in a home setting, formed the core of this “familiar format”, and afforded women a new niche within science writing. The most successful author of this genre was Jane Haldimand Marcet (1769-1858), wife of a London physician and experimental chemist. Her first (and most famous) work, Conversations on Chemistry (1806), was widely-acclaimed, and enjoyed numerous editions, becoming the most popular chemistry textbook of its time. The most scientific of her later books was Conversations for Children on Land and Water (1838), which featured a family observing, discussing, and modeling geological processes (such as the erosion of mountains). At the same time, the development of a lucrative public library market in America led to the development of several competing book series aimed at young readers, such as The School District Library, the School Library of the American Sunday School Union, the Christian Library, and The School Library. This last series, published in Boston, was composed of a combination of original works by American authors and revised editions of famous European works, each officially sanctioned by the Massachusetts State Board of Education before publication. One of the inaugural volumes was Scenes in Nature, or Conversations with Children on Land and Water, a revision of Marcet’s Conversations for Children on Land and Water penned by Harvard educated physician Dr. Thomas Hopkins Webb. The result was an expanded volume featuring additional material about the landforms of North America as well as carefully selected religious, political, and social commentary. There were also a number of important deletions of material that might raise controversy with the intended audience. Webb’s changes represented a conscious attempt to reshape Marcet’s work according to the Massachusetts Board of Education’s standards, demonstrating that societal pressures to revise and edit science textbooks is not a new phenomenon in American publishing.