Here are some of the many collections of textbooks available to academic and public researchers. I used the following search string in Google: "list of historic textbook collections digital". This work was done on November 2, 2023.
Most of these are large repositories and some are in professional websites. The thing is, once these are posted they tend to remain stable and can be relied upon (to some extent) to last as links and repositories. They have intrinsic value.
The Wiedrick Collection
The Wiedrick Collection contains digitized versions of the over 4000 books and print resources that make up the collection built by Dr. Laurence “Laurie” Wiedrick [1925-1982] over his 30+ year career. Dr. Wiedrick began his career as a teacher-librarian eventually becoming the Supervisor of School Libraries at Edmonton Public Schools and a professor of Education here at the University of Alberta. Among his significant achievements here at the UAlberta were coordinating the Faculty of Education’s Curriculum Laboratory from 1967 to 1981 and helping to establish the University’s School of Library Science.
The IBE Historical Textbook Collection
6,070 records. Textbooks and teaching materials from over 140 countries, covering more than 50 different subjects and available in over 104 languages. These include, among others:
- Rare textbooks dating from the 1700s
- Textbooks from the personal libraries of the IBE's precursors, founders, and educators such as Marc Antoine-Julien, Pierre Bovet, Marie Butts and Jean Piaget.
The digitization of the Historical Textbook Collection is in progress.
Historical Textbook Collection, University of Saskatchewan
The core Historical Textbook Collection consists of materials authorized by the Department of Education for use in Saskatchewan elementary and secondary schools from 1884-1992. This Collection continues to grow and includes textbooks, teachers' editions, recommended children's literature, and selected audiovisual materials. The Collection also includes school materials that have archival value.
"Maha Kumaran is the liaison librarian for the College of Education. She'd likely be the best person to contact about the collection. You can find her profile here: https://library.usask.ca/people/maha-kumaran.php" From my conversation with Rob Alary, Librarian on November 21, 2023.
19th Century Schoolbooks, University of Pittsburgh
The 19th Century Schoolbooks Collection contains schoolbooks from the Nietz Old Textbook Collection. In addition, this online collection also contains two works by Dr. John Nietz, which survey historic American schoolbooks in the context of the history of education. Size: 9,000 volumes.
The Internet Archive, s. v. textbooks
This archive returns 39,143 results for books about textbooks and textbook archives. Some collections include the following.
Historical Textbooks, National Library of Education
NCERT Textbooks, The National Council of Educational Research and Training
The National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) is an autonomous body which aims to provide qualitative education to the school children in India. Its primary work is to prepare and publish model textbooks, supplementary material, educational kits, etc.
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The following sites are listed on the Historical Curriculum Collections page at the University of Alberta. The text was copied from that page.
British Columbia Historical Textbooks
The Curriculum Library at the University of Victoria has a unique collection of textbooks used in British Columbia’s public schools since the province joined confederation in 1871. This historical textbooks collection includes books on a variety of school subjects including science, math, health, English and language arts, foreign languages, history, and social studies.
Memorial University's Digital Archives Initiative
The Memorial University's Digital Archives Initiative (DAI) contains research-based cultural resources held by Memorial University and partnering organizations. From books and maps to photographs, periodicals, video and audio, the DAI hosts a variety of collections which together reinforce the importance, past and present, of Newfoundland and Labrador's history and culture.
Ontario Historical Education Collection
The Ontario Historical Education Collection includes approximately 6500 items, including numerous documents, mainly from the Ontario Ministry of Education (formerly the Ontario Department of Education) that cover the areas of elementary, secondary and teacher education in the Province from the mid-nineteenth century to the present day.
The Ontario Textbook Collection includes elementary and secondary school texts approved for use in Ontario circa 1846 to 1970, as well as some materials used in nineteenth-century schools which were not authorized by the Ontario Department of Education. Supporting this collection are other holdings of textbooks including post-1970 texts deleted from the approval lists.
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Historical Textbook Collection, University of Cincinnati
he Archives & Rare Books Library’s Historical Textbook Collection was created by Gary Lare, former head of the Curriculum Resources Center, now called the College of Education, Criminal Justice, and Human Services (CECH) Library. Now a special collection in the Archives & Rare Books Library, the collection continues to be developed as primary source materials for the history of education in the United States. Comprising more than 2000 textbooks from the early 19th century to the turn of the 21st century, the textbooks cover virtually every subject taught in elementary, middle and secondary schools.
The goals of this exhibit are to provide a preliminary finding aid for the volumes, along with background information on textbook publishing in Cincinnati and the heritage of K-12 education in the United States, with the eventual aim of cataloging and naming the collection. A collection development policy is also being developed, with guidelines to expand scholarly research and teaching with primary materials. Subjects included in the collection are foreign languages, art, health, grammar & composition, handwriting, speech & theatre, mathematics, music, science, social studies, and engineering.
Education: Historical Textbooks: Home, Berkley Library, University of California
Collections, JSTOR
Explore collections of images and primary sources from libraries, museums, and archives around the world.
Digital Collections, Smithsonian LibrariesDiscover new avenues of research
Go beyond the usual sources. Discover new avenues of research and gain deeper understanding of your topics with original materials including artworks, photographs, publications, recordings, and other artifacts. Explore important and rare collections from libraries, museums, archives, and historical societies around the world.
Our digital collections include over 35,000 digitized books and manuscripts (available in either our Digital Library or as part of the Biodiversity Heritage Library) as well as digitized photo collections, ephemera, and seed catalogs.
Collections, HathiTrust Digital Library
Our enormous collection includes thousands of years of human knowledge and published materials from around the world, selected by librarians and preserved in the libraries of academic and research libraries. You can find all kinds of digitized books and primary source materials to suit a wide range of research needs. Our collection is always growing, so check back!
Historical Children's Books at the Library of Congress: Selected Resources, Library of Congress, Research Guides
The Library's digital collections contain a variety of primary source materials related to historical children's books, including scanned books, articles from historical newspapers, and prints and photographs. We have provided links below to some relevant collections, as well as tips and strategies for searching the Library's website more broadly, to find additional resources on this topic.
Center for Research Libraries: Textbooks (not digital)
The textbook collection includes U.S. imprints of primary and secondary schoolbooks, textbooks for post-high school non-degree schools such as business and trade schools, and foreign language grammars and readers through college level. The publication dates range from the 18th century, although most holdings were published in the 20th century. This collection was formed by deposits from member libraries and is maintained through retrospective deposits. There are 70,000 volumes in the collection occupying 8,000 linear feet of shelf space.
Note: At this point I started running out of sites that featured collections of textbooks. Results showed the words collection and historical and digital, but not textbook.
A number of specialized textbook archives have begun to surface in my research.
All About Circuits (independent online community for electrical engineers)
In their forum on Education and Homework Help I found a library of old books, magazines and textbooks. In a post on the topic the user posted 20 links to other posts in the forum pertaining to circuitry textbooks.