Floyd Family
Collection

The Floyd Family Collection was established in 1979 with the donation of 121 Indiana public school textbooks by William Floyd, a retired school superintendent residing in West Lafayette, and his wife, Cletis, who retired from school teaching when she married--a custom at the time. Containing primarily public school textbooks published or used in Indiana from 1840 to around 1940, the collection reflects a period of tremendous change in American social history. In Mr. Floyd's view, during the 100-year focus period, textbooks acted as a mainstay for transmitting cultural beliefs. Through the study of the texts published for and used by young Hoosiers, researchers may learn not only about what was taught or how it was taught but also find the means to study moral and ethical subtexts.

The collection contains textbooks on many subjects no longer taught in present-day schools as well as textbooks on traditional subjects such as reading, writing, and arithmetic. Besides textbooks, the collection contains textbook publisher's catalogs, teachers' editions of textbooks, books used to supplement literature courses, and similar materials.

The number of volumes has grown to nearly 1,800 examples. The growth of the collection has been dramatic, with more than half of it coming as gifts from the Floyds and their family. Other interested individuals, particularly retired schoolteachers and ISU alumni, and institutions, such as the Indianapolis-Marion County Library and the Lilly Library of Indiana University, have made significant contributions of books to the collection.

Almost the entire collection has been cataloged in the on-line public access catalog (OPAC). A keyword phrase search on "Floyd Family Collection" will retrieve all currently cataloged titles. Combining terms will narrow down results. In addition, both HTML and PDF catalogs of all textbooks that have been added to the collection is now available. The HTML catalog will be removed when the cataloging of the collection has been completed. Anyone who downloads the PDF catalog should be aware that it is out of date and that the online cataloging may differ from it in its details or correct errors.

The Cunningham, Floyd Family, and Walker collections are collectively referred to as "Classics in American Education." Although emphases among the three collections vary somewhat, they all have in common a focus on American themes--beliefs, practices, texts. Taken together, the three collections provide a significant base for advanced study and research in American education.

• Online public catalog (OPAC), fully searchable. Use "Floyd Family Collection " as a keyword search phrase to retrieve the cataloged portion of the collection.

• HTML Catalog of the Floyd Family Collection: Arranged by Subject or Category
  • Business Education Textbooks Catalog
  • English Textbooks
    • English Textbooks Catalog (Gateway to Alphabetically Arranged Listings)
    • English Textbooks Catalog, A-Z (Complete in one 248K HTML file)
    • M^cGuffey Readers and Spellers
  • Foreign Language Textbooks Catalog
  • History Textbooks Catalog
  • Mathematics Textbooks Catalog
  • Miscellaneous Textbooks Catalog
  • Music Textbooks Catalog
  • Science Textbooks Catalog
  • Social Studies Textbooks Catalog
  • Teacher and Other Materials Catalog

• Floyd Family Collection: Catalog of Textbooks and Related Materials in PDF format, published November 1999.
  • Title Page, Preface, Introduction, and Use of Catalog
  • English
  • Business Education, Foreign Languages, and Mathematics
  • Music, Science, Social Studies, Various Subjects and Additions, and Teacher Materials
  • Appendix: Titles Issued With Textbooks, Author Main-Entry and Title Main-Entry Indexes

  Cunningham Memorial Library, 650 Sycamore St., Terre Haute, IN 47809   812.237.2580
  Updated June 22nd, 2004     Maintained by: Special Collections
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