McGuffey's New Third Eclectic Reader

McGuffey, Wm. H., LL.D. McGuffey's New Third Eclectic Reader. Cincinnati & New York: Van Antwerp, Bragg & Company. 1865. [Cover]

Some educators of the nineteenth century believed that the ideal approach to beginning reading was a combination of the word and phonic methods, as well as the spelling method. The readers they designed were therefore "eclectic" in their methodologies, in their attempt to appeal to as wide an audience of teachers as possible. Among the most successful of these was William Holmes McGuffey's series of 'Eclectic Readers' which were produced from the 1830s until after the turn of the twentieth century.