Closing Exercises For the Grades is designed to assist teachers tasked with developing and conducting commencement exercises for grammar schools. It contains inspirational poems, stories, short plays, and activities. There are some black and white illustrations of children in various dress and costumes. The front cover is illustrated with two large flowers. Both the front and back cover pages, and the back cover itself, contain lists of recommended patriotic songs, play, and exercises.
Harriette Wilbur was an editor and author of teachers’ guides for children. In addition to Closing Exercises For the Grades, she compiled and/or created other works to entertain and inspire a love of reading in children. These include Bird Gossip and A Dream of Mother Goose and other Entertainments. She also published original stories in The Youth’s Companion (1920), a family-oriented Reader’s Digest type magazine designed to appeal to the middle class and noted for their sponsorship of the creation of the Pledge of Allegiance as well as promoting a “flag over every schoolhouse” and images of patriotic figures in classrooms.
March Brothers publishing house was established in Lebanon, Ohio and was active in the Midwest. It specializing in teacher’s exercise books and educational materials.