Kent State was a brand-new college in 1910 and its name, at that time, was Kent State Normal School. “Normal” might seem like a strange name to our 21^st century ears. It refers to educational norms or curriculum standards; Kent State’s initial mission was educating and preparing people to become school teachers.

It makes sense that the first book acquired for the new teachers’ college would be this title, Exposition and Illustration in Teaching. Written by a professor of education at the University of London, John Adams (1857-1934), it focuses on teaching with the goal of fostering the development of ideas (as opposed to rote memorization) and methods for making the learning process interesting and engaging. A review published in 1911 called the book “…readable, and often entertaining” and stated that it “…deals with so important a field of education in so effective a way that it should be read by every student of methods of teaching, and anyone else interested in getting the greatest possible number of practical hints for imparting knowledge to others.”* The early librarians at Kent State seem to have made a very good choice for their first purchase!

This was long before students could check out books by scanning a barcode and this book still has its original front pocket and circulation card. It’s fun now to see the names and handwriting of the students who borrowed it more than 100 years ago.

 
* Rowe, S. H. (1911). Review of Exposition and Illustration in Teaching [Review of the book Exposition and illustration in teaching, by J. Adams]. Journal of Educational Psychology, 2(10), 581–582.