Learning to Think

This wonderful little "Learning to Think" book was turned into a scrapbook. What can we guess about it?

Who made it? When was it made? 

For years, this fun scrapbook
was on a desk in the Shinn Nursery.
It is now scanned in and on California Revealed.

 New pages were inserted between old book covers. 

The pages were stiff yellow paper.

M.S. (Milicent Shinn) and J.S. (Joseph Shinn)?

The signatures of the creators of the book? 

Newspaper pages, in some cases, were cut up to paste into the book.

Was this a project for some home-schooled students - Milicent Shinn and Joseph Shinn? One of the newspapers is from 1865. Milicent would have been seven years old. Joseph would have been three years old.

What would scrapbooking have
been called back then?
Here's one history of scrapbooking.

Today we call this an altered book. 

I like to think that it is a way to honor a book that was at one time new and complete and now has been loved enough to fall apart. Rather than throwing it away, in 1865, one would find a new use for it. Why not a scrapbook? 

Learning to Think

The original book "Learning to Think" (1856) is on the internet.

Was this book bought in California after the Shinn family arrived in 1856. Charles was 4 and Annie was a newborn. Both James and Lucy Shinn had been schoolteachers. They would have wanted their children to be well educated. 

After 9 years of use (and 4 children), had this book been loved to death?

Here is the original book Learning to Think. The book is meant to be read to young children and to have them answer questions about the fun pictures in the book. The reader is coached to respond to the children's answers in a positive way. School teachers, how does this compare to today?