William Holmes McGuffey

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Through his enormously popular series of elementary school readers, William Holmes McGuffey (1800-1873) educated several generations of Americans.

William McGuffey was born on Sept. 28, 1800, in Washington County, Pa. He learned his letters at home, was tutored in Latin by a nearby minister, and attended the Old Stone Academy in Darlington, Pa. He graduated from Washington College in 1826 and became professor of ancient languages at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio. In 1829 he was licensed to preach in the Presbyterian Church.

In 1836 McGuffey was elected president of Cincinnati College, where he became prominently associated with a citizens' group seeking to promote public education. This group, which evolved into the Western Literary Institute, sponsored educational meetings and successfully lobbied for the organization of Ohio's common schools.

McGuffey's interest in public education led to a publishing agreement to produce a series of elementary readers to serve student needs on the western frontier, which was divided by ethnic differences and denominational factions. In 1836 the first and second Eclectic Readers were published, initiating a series that ended in 1857 with the sixth Eclectic Reader, compiled by McGuffey's brother.

Each Reader, carefully graduated in difficulty, was a compilation of classical selections, homely aphorisms, and patriotic messages that set a dour tone of piety, thrift, and industry. The righteous wisdom of the Readers, deriving as much from Benjamin Franklin's Poor Richard's Almanac as from John Calvin's writings, dictated the moral position and literary taste of emerging America, influencing the courts, statehouses, and home-steads alike. The growth of free common schools, the stringent nonsectarian Protestantism of the books, and a choice of readings that appealed to all walks of life in all sections of the nation gave the Readers great popularity. It is estimated that over 120 million copies were sold in English and various translations, primarily during the 19th century. Although they no longer reflect the dominant mood of America, the Readers still command a nostalgic following in some areas.

McGuffey became president of Ohio University in 1839 and professor of natural and moral philosophy at the University of Virginia in 1845. With characteristic energy, he continued revising and enlarging the Readers, substituting American for English selections as they became available but never tampering with his successful formula. Although his celebrity rested on his texts, McGuffey achieved local eminence as a teacher at Virginia rather than as a scholar. His sole scholarly effort, a book on mental philosophy, was a derivative and outmoded defense of Protestant orthodoxy published posthumously. He died in Charlottesville on May 4, 1873.

Further Reading

The essentials of McGuffey's life and a detailed analysis of the various editions of the Readers are in Harvey C. Minnich, William Holmes McGuffey and His Readers (1936). Ruth M. Elson, in Guardians of Tradition: American Schoolbooks of the Nineteenth Century (1964), contrasts the McGuffey series with other texts. See also Richard D. Mosier, Making the American Mind: Social and Moral Ideas in the McGuffey Readers (1947), and Alice M. Ruggles, The Story of the McGuffeys (1950).

Additional Sources

Crawford, Benjamin Franklin, The life of William Holmes McGuffey, Delaware, Ohio, Carnegie Church Press 1974.

Sullivan, Dolores P., William Holmes McGuffey: schoolmaster to the nation, Rutherford, N.J.: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press; London: Associated University Presses, 1994.

Westerhoff, John H., McGuffey and his readers: piety, morality, and education in nineteenth-century America, Nashville: Abingdon, 1978.

William Holmes McGuffey (September 23, 1800 – May 4, 1873) was an American professor and college president who is best known for writing the McGuffey Readers, one of the nation's first and most widely used series of textbooks. It is estimated that at least 122 million copies of McGuffey Readers were sold between 1836 and 1960, placing its sales in a category with the Bible and Webster's Dictionary.

Contents 1 Early years 2 Professional life 3 Legacy 4 Notes 5 References 6 External links

Early years

He was born the son of Alexander and Anna (Holmes) McGuffey near Claysville in Washington County, Pennsylvania, which is 45 miles southwest of Pittsburgh. In 1802 the McGuffey family moved further out into the frontier at Tuscarawas County, Ohio. He attended country school, and after receiving special instruction at Youngstown, he attended Greersburg Academy in Darlington, Pennsylvania. Afterwards, he attended and graduated from Pennsylvania's Washington College, where he became an instructor.

Professional life

McGuffey left Washington College in 1826 to become a professor at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio. A year later in 1827, he was married to Harriet Spinning of Dayton, Ohio, with whom he had five children. In 1829, he was ordained at Bethel Chapel as a minister in the Presbyterian Church. It was in Oxford that he created the most important contribution of his life: The McGuffey Readers. His books sold over 122 million copies. He was very fond of teaching and children as he geared the books toward a younger audience.

In 1836, he left Miami to become president of Cincinnati College, where he also served as a distinguished teacher and lecturer. He left Cincinnati in 1839 to become the 4th president of Ohio University, which he left in 1843 to become president of Woodward College (really a secondary school) in Cincinnati.

In 1845, McGuffey moved to Charlottesville, Virginia where he became Professor of Philosophy at the University of Virginia. A year after his first wife Harriet died in 1850, he married Miss Laura Howard, daughter of Dean Howard of the University of Virginia, in 1851. McGuffey is buried in the university burial ground, in Charlottesville, Virginia. The School of Education at Miami University is housed in McGuffey Hall which is named for him and his home in Oxford is a National Historic Landmark offering tours on weekdays.

Legacy

McGuffey Hall at Ohio University, named for William McGuffey

McGuffey is credited with the following quotation:

"The christian religion, is the religion of our country. From it are derived our prevalent notions of the character of God, the great moral governor of the universe. On its doctrines are founded the peculiarities of our free institutions."^[1]

The McGuffey School District in Washington County, Pennsylvania is named for William Holmes McGuffey. The industrialist Henry Ford cited McGuffey Readers as one of his most important childhood influences. In 1934 he had the log cabin where McGuffey was born moved to Greenfield Village, Ford's museum of Americana at Dearborn, Michigan.

Notes

1. ^ Wm. H. McGuffy, "Duties of Parents and Teachers," p. 138, in Transactions of the Fifth Annual Meeting of the Western Literary Institute, Cincinnati, 1836, pp. 129-152. Two sentences are often added to this: "From no source has the author drawn more conspicuously than from the sacred Scriptures. From all these extracts from the Bible I make no apology." Their source is unknown.

References

Source: Biography Reference Bank. The H. W. Wilson Company, 2007.

External links

• William Holmes McGuffey - Digital Collection
• Works by William Holmes McGuffey at Project Gutenberg
• William Holmes McGuffey Museum National Historic Landmark at Miami University, Oxford, Ohio
• William Holmes McGuffey at Miami University
• "The Memory of McGuffey"
• William Holmes McGuffey at Find a Grave

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