| Long ago, and not so far away, in the city of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, a group of
church-going people, “in an effort to raise the condition and improve the lives of the boys
of that city,"1 met to form “Sunday schools.” It was
December of 1790 and at that time there were no free public schools in their city. In an
effort to fill the void, leaders from several denominations met and organized the “First-day
or Sunday-School Society of Philadelphia,” the first known organization whose purpose was
specifically to promote Sunday schools. In less than twenty years, many such organizations
sprang up in Philadelphia, as well as in other cities in the United States. By 1817, ten
or more of the local Philadelphia societies or “unions” felt a desire to consolidate into a
general union and after three meetings in May of 1817, “The Sunday and Adult School Union”
was begun. Within seven years of its inception, this union had auxiliary unions in ten
states and the District of Columbia. Gradually, these unions began to feel a need to be national in name, to match their national scope. Thus in December of 1823, representatives from unions from various cities met in Philadelphia for preliminary discussions about forming such an organization. Out of these discussions, “The American Sunday-School Union” was formed. This new union was governed by a board made up of a president, vice-president, corresponding secretary, recording secretary, treasurer, and “managers.” All were laymen from the “principal evangelical denominations of the country,2 and most served on one of the committees that were part of the Union. What, you may be wondering, does the formation of Sunday schools, Sunday school societies, and “The American Sunday-School Union” have to do with children’s literature and/or publishing? Their objectives give us a clue: To concentrate the efforts of Sabbath-school societies in different portions of our country…, to disseminate useful information; circulate moral and religious publications in every part of the land, and endeavor to plant a Sunday-school wherever there is a population.3 Union leaders believed that religious literature suitable for young readers was largely non-existent, so they endeavored to publish books and periodicals for this market. |
| The Union’s requirements for the literature they published were stringent. Publications
were to be of a “moral and religious nature," 4 age appropriate, “good”
literature, and American. Initially all literature was published anonymously. Each piece
had to be unanimously approved by the Publication Committee, which had to have members of
at least three different denominations and all works had to be free of denominational bias.
Because there was doubt by some religious groups as to the suitability of fiction for young
readers, the Union formed a policy that imaginative works should not give “false or
unnatural views of life, character, or duty."5 Thus the literature they
published mostly “included history, biography, travels, conversations, narratives, poetry,
hymns and songs, discourses and didactic teachings…"6 Illustrations were of high
quality for the time, as well. From its first publication, Mary Martha Sherwood’s Little Henry and his Bearer, through its many other books and periodicals, the Union’s goal remained the same, to make their publications accessible to as many people as possible. To this end, many authors, artists and workers contributed their efforts to the Union at no cost. The Union in turn provided their literature at cost or even, when possible, for free. Eventually, the Union even began to produce “libraries” of books that could be purchased at a reduced rate by schools and thus provide free circulation to small rural communities. Surprisingly, the American Sunday-School Union continued to publish until 1960. Then in 1974, it became the American Missionary Fellowship, an organization that still exists in 2004, though it has changed in function and purpose from the parent organization founded so many years ago. |