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"A Practical System of Modern Geography"

(c) Pocumtuck Valley Memorial Association, Deerfield MA. All rights reserved.
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As printing technologies improved in the 19th century, schoolbooks, such as this geography text, increasingly contained engraved illustrations to engage readers. Although these illustrations were often inaccurate or stereotypic they provided students with visual images of unfamiliar peoples such as African slaves in Southern States and Native Americans "out west". These books were a real "window to the world" for children in a time before TV, radio or movies and with access to few magazines or newspapers. Ideas and images absorbed from these books would color the thoughts and beliefs of the children who studied them.

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