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"Peter Parley" Goodrich. Brady-Handy Photograph Collection. Prints and Photographs Division.

Philip Lee Phillips Society Meets Peter Parley, a Geographer for Children

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This is a guest post by Jackie Coleburn, Rare Book Cataloger at the Library of Congress.

Did Philip Lee Phillips study Peter Parley geography books when he was a child? This is a detail of his personal history we may never know. Philip Lee Phillips (1857–1924) was the first Superintendent of Maps when the Hall of Maps and Charts was established in 1897, when the Library of Congress moved into its own building, now the Thomas Jefferson Building.

We can safely assume that Mr. Phillips knew of Peter Parley, a pseudonym of children’s writer Samuel G. Goodrich (1793–1860). Goodrich’s well-illustrated books on geography, as well as history, biography, and the sciences, were wildly popular in the 19th century, second only to the McGuffey Readers. His biographer, Daniel Roselle, estimates that 12 million of his books were sold.

Cover of 1836 edition of "Atlas Designed to Illustrate the Malte-Brun School of Geography" by Samuel G. Goodrich
Cover of Atlas Designed to Illustrate the Malte-Brun School of Geography. Samuel G. Goodrich, 1836. Geography and Map Division.

The Philip Lee Phillips Society, named in his honor, furthers the development of the collections of the Geography and Map Division at the Library of Congress. On May 19, the Society gathered with the Washington Map Society, guests, and Library of Congress staff in the Jefferson Building for a presentation and book display of Peter Parley’s geography books for children.

Jackie Coleburn, Library of Congress rare book cataloger, and Anthony Mullan, Library of Congress retired cartographic specialist, gave an illustrated presentation, “A Globe on a new plan: Peter Parley’s teaching of geography to children in the 19th century.” In addition to the lecture, 25 treasures from the vaults in the Geography and Map and the Rare Book and Special Collections Divisions were on display.

Map on left-hand side shows the 1836 edition of Southern States identifying Cherokee Territory. Map on right-hand side shows the 1839 edition of Southern States, which does not include the phrase Cherokee Territory.
Maps of “Southern States” in