The Child’s First Book

Page one of The Child’s First Book shows the letters of the alphabet in lowercase, in uppercase, and in italics. This small, inexpensive primer, published in the mid-1700s by the Anglican missionary organization the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, would have been the first book handed to a new student attending one of the schools founded by the Associates of Dr. Bray. The Associates sent more issues of this book to their school in Williamsburg than any other text, sending fifty copies in 1760, forty the next year, and fifty more in 1763. The entire book was only thirty-two pages long, and it included short bible verses and moral strictures alongside basic lessons in literacy.