COLLECTION #230: Vintage Boxed Activity Books

More fun for Ephemera Week on the Copycat Collector! These are vintage boxed sets of children's activity and reading books from the 40s and 50s. I love them! The first set, published by Platt & Munk in the early 1940s, was something I have already shared. You can read more about it here. These little books are story books, each one is about a different child or children from another time or place. They are beautifully illustrated, and the original boxed set sold for just 75 cents!

My second set is an adorable Activity Box from the Saalfield Pulishing Company in 1941. It is full of little coloring and dot-to-dot books, with fun illustrations. I love the 'magic painting' books, just use a wet brush and the colors magically appear!

The last set is from Whitman Publishing, 1956. Some of the books are missing. There were originally 20 books, and I have 10 Lassie books, and 4 others. So, I assume that 6 generic books have disappeared. I love those Lassie books though, it was one of my favorite TV shows as a child. It should be noted that the show portrayed in the coloring books were during the "Jeff" years, not the "Timmy" years. I kinda had a crush on Jeff when I was about 6. I thought he was so cute!

COLLECTION #183: Vintage Coloring & Activity Books

Today's collection is my modest group of vintage coloring, dot-to-dot, painting and any-combination-of-the-above books! These books range from the 1920s
(On the Road to Art), to the newest book Friends Coloring Book (1960).  We have cowboys & Indians, World War II, and playful kitties and other cute animals. I love how some of the books include helpful hints for the budding artsist. I won't bore you with publishing details, just enjoy the visual images!

COLLECTION #96: Vintage School Readers and Workbooks

We called them "Think and Do Books", (which was actually the registered name of the Scott, Foresman and Company workbooks) they were the soft-covered books that accompanied our readers and other books, which we could actually write and draw in. Heaven forbid if we made so much as a pencil mark in our precious readers! Most of these books were thrown away when they were filled out, so it's always fun to find one of these today, especially one that hasn't been written in. (Actually, it doesn't bother me a bit to find one that has been written in because it's such a little window into someone's life to see their writing and coloring!)

Here are a few of the workbooks I've found, for which I have corresponding readers.  These are all from the late '40s, and '50s.  I've included a few of the inside pages, because they are so charming. The Many Surprises workbook is actually one edition earlier than the reader, but I've included the illustration of the monkey on the cover of the workbook.

The Many Surprises is a first grade
reader, published by Lyons and
Carnahan.



Both Around the Corner (second grade) and Trails to Treasure (fifth grade) were published by Ginn and Company.

They are wonderful readers and workbooks, full of fun stories and great illustrations. The workbooks are interesting, challenging, and fun to look at.