Experiences of a Book Collector

My interest in collecting old textbooks began about thirty years ago when I was teaching a late afternoon graduate course in the history of American education. One afternoon while discussing the Colonial Period, I mentioned the hornbook, the New England Primer, Dilworths' New Guide to the English Tongue and Websters' so-called Blueback. After class a county superintendent of schools, who was a member of the class, waited for me and asked if I would like to have some old school books. (My knowledge then of the above-mentioned books was merely from reading about them in a history of education textbook.) My reply was “yes.” Several weeks later he brought me an old copy of a Union Spelling Book. That aroused my interest in collecting other old textbooks. But where would I secure them?