The Children’s Primer is a reader for the primary grades and a forerunner to the “Dick and Jane” and similar easy reader series. Each chapter is illustrated with drawings of children playing at home or in a natural setting. The front cover contains an intricate, puzzle-like pattern, with a large scallop shell and a seaside scene.
Author Ellen M. Cyr (1860-1920) taught in the Holmes Primary School in the township of Cambridge, Massachusetts. She was a prolific author of a series of children’s readers for the elementary grades.
Edwin Ginn founded the publishing company Ginn Brothers in the City of Boston in 1867. The firm was reorganized under the name Ginn & Company in 1885 and became particularly known for its school texts. In 1895, the company built a new publishing factory, the Athenaeum Press, in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Ginn & Company continued to be a successful publisher of educational texts for 70 years.