Nila Banton Smith

Nila Banton Smith. Portrait from the frontispiece to American Reading Instruction. New York: Silver Burdett & Co., 1934

The Nila Banton Smith Historical Collection in Reading was established at Hofstra University on 1970 by Professor H. Alan Robinson to honor Nila Banton Smith, a professor of reading instruction at New York University, who had been his mentor.

The collection, which now totals several thousand volumes, is organized to parallel the historical periods which Professor Smith identified in her book, American Reading Instruction. Each period is represented by numerous examples of the instructional materials produced in its time.