This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 6/1/2023
[FORD, Henry (1863-1947)]. McGUFFEY, William H. (1800-1873). McGuffey’s New Eclectic Reader. N.p. [reprinted by Henry Ford], 1930-32.
6 volumes, 12mo and 8vo. Original cloth backed pictorial boards or blindstamped cloth, marbled edges.
SIGNED BY FORD on the front free endpaper of the first volume. Originally published in 1885, the work was reprinted by Henry Ford in the 1920s and again in the 1930s and sent out to schools around the country. Ford has cited the McGuffey Readers as one of his childhood influences, so much so that he had McGuffey’s log cabin relocated to the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, Michigan. McGuffey Readers “were among the earliest objects reflecting the American experience that Henry Ford collected, beginning in the 1910s. Ford bought every copy that he could find-amassing, by the 1930s, a collection of 468 copies of 145 different editions. A strong believer in McGuffey’s educational principles, Ford perpetuated these beliefs by founding the Edison Institute Schools. He even had the readers reprinted so that the children in the schools could use them” (The Henry Ford). A FINE SET.