Winthrop Smith was one of the founders of the Truman and Smith Publishing Company.
In 1833, the company contracted with William Holmes McGuffey, a professor at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, to produce a series of six schoolbooks. McGuffey completed the first two texts in 1836. He received ten percent of all profits for authoring the books, with his total monetary gain not to exceed a total of one thousand dollars. McGuffey’s Readers, as the books became known, sold more than 125 million copies by 1900. It was the most commonly assigned textbook in American schools during the late nineteenth century.
Truman and Smith Publishing Company also produced a mathematics textbook written by Joseph Ray. Ray’s book became the most commonly assigned text in mathematics courses during the nineteenth century. In 1841, the Truman and Smith Publishing Company dissolved. Smith established the Winthrop B. Smith Publishing Company and retained the rights to publish McGuffey’s Readers. As a result of McGuffey’s Readers, Smith became a very wealthy man. In 1891, his company merged with the American Book Company and created the largest textbook publishing company in the world.
Winthrop B. Smith, who opened a printing establishment and book store at 59 Main Street, with Edward Sargent (bookkeeper) and Louis Van Antwerp (assistant bookkeeper), and head of the book bindery department was Anthony H. Hinkle. Smith contracted William Holmes McGuffey (who lived in Oxford, Oh at the time and on recommendation of Harriet Beecher Stowe) to compile the McGuffey Readers “Eclectic Series”, the first of which was published in 1836. The fifth and sixth Readers in the series were actually written by his brother Alexander McGuffey. The Readers included stories, essays, poems and speeches excerpted from English and American writers & politicians including John Milton, Lord Byron, and Daniel Webster.
After partnering with William T. Truman in 1834 to create Truman & Smith (between 4th & 5th on Main Street). The partnership dissolved in 1843, with Smith returning the name to W. B. Smith & Co. The “Eclectic Series” eventually expanded to include arithmetic and grammar textbooks written by Dr. Joseph Ray and Thomas Harvey respectively. Selling over a million volumes, including those in the “eclectic series,” during the 1840s made it one of if not the largest publisher in the area.
By 1856, the peak of general publishing in Cincinnati had been reached (some number to qualify this as being it), and the outbreak of the American Civil War in 1861 coupled with the advent of railroad expansion caused a large shift in Midwest general publishing concentration to Chicago. It was more difficult to secure funding for large scale business ventures in Cincinnati after the Panic of 1857, a short-lived depression primarily limited to the Midwest that caused the Ohio Life Insurance and Trust Company to collapse. When European market demand for western goods began to fall, investors and bankers were cautious when offering loans and often refused them to businesses—the economy not fully recovering until after the Civil War had begun. Specialized publishers, however, still had the opportunity to thrive if given a chance.
After Winthrop B. Smith retired in 1863, his remaining partners changed the name to Sargent, Wilson & Hinkle. As the remaining members of the original partnership retired gradually, the firm’s name changed to Wilson, Hinkle & Co, and then Van Antwerp, Bragg & Co. What was eventually to become the American Book Company* was by the early 1880s the worlds largest schoolbook publishing house in the world, producing 4.5 million a year in 1883; its market share extending as far as Japan to whom they supplied English Grammars.
Master The English Language With The Original McGuffey’s – Eclectic Readers Set. Education For Children on Reading, Phonics, Spelling, and Grammar. Traditional Education Materials Perfect for Homeschooling
by William Holmes McGuffey Mott Media, LLC / Hardcover SKU: 6202935.0(8)
The Complete Set To Master The English Language
The Original McGuffey Eclectic Readers Series, written in the 1830’s, was designed by a university professor to help children learn English in the most effective way possible. After years of educating students, McGuffey compiled the best methods that resonate most with children into a series of educational books. This series contains the original Christian content which was removed in later editions. To make these books accessible to young readers, the size of the print is suitable to the age of the reader.
Improve your child or student’s reading skills with time-tested and academically developed strategies and techniques. Each lesson includes a moral reading selection, questions to answer about the selection, and vocabulary words to learn.
Includes a specialized ‘Speller’ book that provides excellent spelling lists that are tied to the rules of phonics, for increased reading comprehension. Make your teaching easier and help your students or children improve their spelling.
Includes the Parent-Teacher’s Guide written by Ruth Beechick exclusively for our Original Readers. Gives general help for teaching reading and specific ideas for each lesson.
All books available separately.
This set includes:
McGuffey Eclectic Primer
McGuffey Pictorial Eclectic Primer
McGuffey Progressive Speller
McGuffey Eclectic First Reader
McGuffey Eclectic Second Reader
McGuffey Eclectic Third Reader
McGuffey Eclectic Fourth Reader
Parent-Teacher Guide for the Original McGuffey Readers
