"Milk for babes and meat for men": the children's books of the American Sunday-School Union, 1825-1865
Date
1995
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Publisher
University of Delaware
Abstract
The American Sunday-School Union, an interdenominational Protestant organization based in Philadelphia, began publishing children's books soon after its incorporation in 1824. Its professed aim in disseminating works to a juvenile audience was to promote the Christian values which its leaders viewed as lacking or completely absent in both the children's literature of the era and in American society in general. The American Sunday-School Union chose to target children in the hope that if instructed in the "knowledge of the Lord" at an early age, the rising generations of American children would consequently grow up to be moral, Christian adults. Therefore, the Union's Publications Committee vowed in 1824 to publish only those books which dealt specifically with religion. ☐ This study examines the changing goals and products of the American Sunday-School Union's publishing campaign over a forty-year period from 1825 until near the end of the first Editor's tenure in 1865. Sources analyzed include a variety of American Sunday-School Union documents ranging from published sermons, annual reports, book catalogues, and the books themselves to unpublished sources including minutes and reports of the Publications Committee and correspondence from the Union's missionaries. ☐ This body of evidence reveals that subtle disparities existed between the goals the American Sunday- School Union expressed publicly concerning its publications and the policies the Publications Committee administered privately. Subject matter was not limited to religion; the target audience was not limited to children; and illustrations, which originally had been deemed inappropriate for children's literature, became common. As the century progressed, American Sunday-School Union publications became virtually indistinguishable from the very publications they had originally been intended to replace. However, although Union publications looked drastically different in 1865 compared with how they appeared in 1825, the underlying principles on which they were based remained the same. Rather than being a sign of the sacrifice or abandonment of the Union's initial goals, these changes, by ensuring that Union books were bought and read, actually served to secure the American Sunday- School Union's place of influence in nineteenth-century American society.