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133 Evolution in Children’s Science Books, 1882–1922 kate฀mcdow฀ ell In 1922, Hendrik Van Loon received the frst Newbery Medal, for his book The Story of Mankind, a tour of humankind through the ages, beginning with the evolution of human beings. The Children’s Librarian’s Section of the American Library Association created the Newbery Medal to be given to the best book published in the United States for children.1 In the history of children’s literature, this frst Newbery Medal winner is an anomaly; few nonfction works have won the medal, and fewer still works of science have received Newbery medals or recognition as Newbery honor books. In fact, there have only been two others: a 1940 honor-winning biography, Runner of the Mountain Tops: The Life of Louis Agassiz by Mabel Robinson, and a 1956 honor-winning introduction to biology, titled Men, Microscopes, and Living Things by Katherine Shippen. Although Van Loon’s work is unusual when compared with what has won the Newbery award since, it was continuous with a strong emphasis on natural history and nature study in late-nineteenth- and early-twentieth-century publishing for children. However, Van Loon’s book was still unusual among natural history works for children in that it addressed a controversial issue; it opened with a chapter addressing the most controversial aspect of evolutionary theory, human evolution . Van Loon introduced an account of evolution that traced the “ascent of man” from single-celled life-forms in the sea to “Early Man.” Van Loon implied support for Darwin’s theory of natural selection when he wrote: “Only the people with the cleverest brains survived.”2 While there were many science 134 ฀ kate฀mcdowell books published for children in the United States before 1922, relatively few of them described or discussed evolution, and fewer still explained human evolution. To discover how often evolution appeared and how it was described to young readers, this chapter analyzes science trade books written for young people and recommended from 1882 to 1922. Evolution was explained as natural selection, alluded to through adaptation, and, occasionally, used to connect humankind to the larger animal kingdom. Children’s science books typically referenced evolution by describing concrete, observable relationships between creatures such as insects and flowers. The ways evolution appeared and did not appear in these texts raises questions about the degree to which most authors were able to convey it as a concept, with its vast span of time and complex relationships among organisms, to a child audience. Despite this historical emphasis, works of science written for and recommended to young people have rarely been the subject of literary scholarship; children’s literature scholarship tends to investigate children’s fction, with a few exceptions.3 Similarly, historians of science have given relatively little attention to children’s science education, including the books or textbooks used, available, or recommended.4 Educational scholars have made a few studies of evolution in high school biology textbooks, but such an approach elides both science trade books and what younger children could have chosen for themselves in public libraries.5 How evolutionary theory as expressed in Charles Darwin’s ideas was disseminated to various groups of people has been the subject of some scholarship. However, investigated groups are generally presumed to be adults, organized by their geography, gender, race, and religion.6 Children are both part of each of these social groups and distinct from adults in them, but their vantage point has, for the most part, been overlooked in these investigations. The period from 1882 to 1922 not only spans the time from librarians’ early recommendation lists to the inauguration of the Newbery medal, it is also signifcant because it preceded the famous Scopes evolution trial in 1925, which marked a period of escalating cultural conflict over teaching evolution. The appearance of evolution in materials published for and recommended to children during this period provides a window into how broad cultural interest in evolution fltered into children’s collections prior to the Scopes trial. Librarians in the late nineteenth century saw the emergence of professional librarianship and the specialization of services to children, which provides a lens for seeing how ideas about evolution were distributed to children.7 However, little research has yet been done on the market for children’s science books during this period, evidence of their readership, or analysis of their critical reception, which raises a number of questions beyond the scope of this essay. For example...

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