This very interesting site was flagged up on the UK Reading Reform Foundation website.
Richard L. Venezky (1938-2004) was a leading expert in the history of literacy and reading. "His interests ranged from orthography to pedagogy, from adult literacy to computer-assisted instruction, from the relationship between literacy and political participation to the history of spelling and reading instructional texts."1
The Venezky Collection contains American primers and readers published between the late 1700s through the middle of the twentieth century. Various editions of many titles show how they evolved over time. In addition, there are early pamphlets, chapbooks, primers, almanacs, dictionaries, children's stories, plus works on textbooks, spelling, and phonetics. Most of the works in this collection are in Special Collections, but the large microfiche collection American Primers, with its guide containing an introductory essay by Venezky, can be found in the Cubberley Education Library.
This exhibition, based on an exhibit in the Bing Wing of Green Library in Fall, 2008, follows some of the themes in Venezky’s various works on the history of textbooks and reading including the historic periods that he delineated: The evolution of the modern textbook can be traced through at least five distinct periods: Colonial (1639–1782), early national (1783–1837), pre-CivilWar (1838–1865), early modern (1866–1920), and modern (1921–present).2
It's fascinating!