Description
Charming early 20th century American Tract Society children’s book, “Songs for the Little Ones at Home,” Revised Edition, printed at 150 Nassau Street, New York. This illustrated volume collects moral and religious verses and “songs” for young children, many with full-page art and devotional themes that reflect late Victorian and Edwardian home and Sunday school life.
This copy has a wonderful provenance: the front flyleaf bears a neatly written 1905 presentation inscription from the Lynbrook Union of the Women’s Christian Temperance Union to a child named Nancy Baker, dating the book to the early 1900s and tying it directly to the temperance movement and Long Island history.
Features and historical interest include:
• Decorative olive-green cloth binding with white architectural frame and inset color illustration of a mother and children at the piano
• Revised American Tract Society edition, part of their hugely popular juvenile library of Christian verse
• 1905 WCTU gift inscription from the Lynbrook Union, a nice association for collectors of temperance and New York/Long Island material
• Period imagery of home, piety, and childhood, suitable for display in a nursery or Victorian/Edwardian décor setting
Condition: about Good+ to Very Good- for age. Pictorial front board remains bright and attractive with some rubbing at corners and spine ends; small nick to the cloth along the upper rear edge. Spine shows light wear but binding remains sound. Interior pages show typical age toning and light handling consistent with a children’s book of this period, with the 1905 presentation inscription on the front endpaper. No loose pages noted. Please view all the photos for the best sense of condition, binding, and contents before purchasing.
