Lessons on Shells, as Given to Children Between the Ages of Eight and Ten, in a Pestalozzian School, at Cheam, Surrey. Illustrated by ten plates, drawn from nature

Seeley, Burnside, 1846. Hard Cover. Very Good. [MAYO, Elizabeth]. Lessons on Shells, as Given to Children Between the Ages of Eight and Ten, in a Pestalozzian School, at Cheam, Surrey. Illustrated by ten plates, drawn from nature. Third edition. xiii, [3], 228pp., half-title., 10 engraved plates each with leaf of text identifying the specimens. A very good copy bound in full contemporary green calf, ornately decorated in gilt. Wide gilt borders, central gilt panel with corner piece ornaments, and gilt panelled spine. Original morocco label just chipped at one corner, and some foxing. 8vo. Seeley, Burnside and Seeley. [1846]. ~ Charles (1792-1846) and Elizabeth Mayo (1793-1865) were brother and sister educational reformers and followers of Pestalozzi. Charles Mayo opened a school in Epsom in 1822, which his mother and sister helped run. They wanted children to learn by observing, touching, and experimenting with the things around them, and they developed a practical curriculum including these 'object lessons'. Elizabeth Mayo wrote two successful works, Lessons on Objects (1830) and Lessons on Shells (1832). The first books of their kind in England, they popularized the use of the object lesson, and were influential to a generation of teachers. In 1843 Elizabeth became the first woman in England to be employed in teacher training, working at the Home and Colonial Infant School Society in Gray's Inn Road, London, the first specific institution dedicated to the training of infant teachers.