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A Picturesque Tale of Progress #1
A Picturesque Tale of Progress: Beginnings I
A PICTURESQUE TALE OF PROGRESS was written by Olive Beaupré Miller, assisted by Harry Neal Baum, former professor of history at the University of Wisconsin. The set includes 8 volumes (with separate Index) divided into 4 themes: Beginnings, Conquests, New Nations, Explorations. Dawn Chorus is also publishing a condensed set bound in 4 volumes. 'Picturesque' here refers to the many beautiful illustrations and maps that give this work its unique value. In a world where the quality of education has deteriorated, may the reissue of this wonderful historical text shine as a beacon to a new generation of young (and not-so-young) scholars! THIS SET IS ESPECIALLY BELOVED AND SOUGHT AFTER BY HOME SCHOOLERS. BEGINNINGS I starts with Early Man, followed by the rise and fall of Egypt. BEGINNINGS II covers Babylonia, the Assyrian empire, and biblical history from Abraham to the Fall of Jerusalem. CONQUESTS I follows the history of Crete and Greece, from their rise as political states through the conquests of Alexander the Great. CONQUESTS II presents the history of Rome, and covers early Christianity and the conversion of Rome. NEW NATIONS I covers the Fall of the Roman Empire, the Byzantine Empire, Medieval Church, Vikings, and Feudal Age. NEW NATIONS II moves from the Byzantine Empire and the Crusades to Spain and the Moors, the development of England, France as a monarchy, Germany and the Holy Roman Empire, and Italy and the Renaissance. EXPLORATIONS I covers Marco Polo, Genghis Khan, the conquests of the Mongols, and Africa and India. EXPLORATIONS II follows the New World from ancient times: the voyages of Leif Ericsson and Columbus introducing extensive treatment of the peoples in the Americas, especially the civilizations of Mexico, Central America, and southwestern America and their conquest by the Spanish. The series ends here-with the discovery of America. The ninth volume is an invaluable INDEX to peoples and places throughout world history from Ancient Egypt through the discovery of America.
- GenresHistory
258 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1929
3 people are currently reading
32 people want to read
About the author
Olive Beaupré Miller
97 books33 followersOlive Kennon Beaupré was born in Aurora, IL on September 11, 1883. She received her B.A. from Smith College in 1904 and returned to Aurora to work as an English teacher for two years. Olive and Harry Edward Miller were married October 2, 1907.
Olive began writing rhymes and stories to entertain her daughter Virginia, and was encouraged by Harry to publish some of her writings. In 1919 Olive founded The Bookhouse for Children publishing company with Harry. Olive assumed the title of Editor and published all of her subsequent material either solely through The Bookhouse or through other publishing companies in conjunction with The Bookhouse.
Olive published the first volume of the My Bookhouse series in 1920 and set to work on the next five volumes. My Bookhouse became the first collection of children's literature which was graded to meet the developing needs and abilities of children at different ages.
Olive began publishing the nine volume series A Picturesque Tale of Progress in 1929. In 1934 Olive revised My Bookhouse, expanding the series from six volumes to twelve.
When Olive and Harry were divorced in May 1935, he resigned his position as President of The Book House. In addition to being Editor, Olive was elected Vice-President by the Board of Directors, who hoped that this post would keep her from pursuing a more managerial role in the company. Olive achieved the position of Chairman of the Board in 1939 and held it until 1954.
The Book House for Children was sold to United Educators in 1954. Olive remained Chairman of the Board in an advisory capacity until she retired in 1962. She moved to Tucson, AZ where she lived with her daughter Virginia (Miller) Read and family until her death on March 25, 1968.
Olive began writing rhymes and stories to entertain her daughter Virginia, and was encouraged by Harry to publish some of her writings. In 1919 Olive founded The Bookhouse for Children publishing company with Harry. Olive assumed the title of Editor and published all of her subsequent material either solely through The Bookhouse or through other publishing companies in conjunction with The Bookhouse.
Olive published the first volume of the My Bookhouse series in 1920 and set to work on the next five volumes. My Bookhouse became the first collection of children's literature which was graded to meet the developing needs and abilities of children at different ages.
Olive began publishing the nine volume series A Picturesque Tale of Progress in 1929. In 1934 Olive revised My Bookhouse, expanding the series from six volumes to twelve.
When Olive and Harry were divorced in May 1935, he resigned his position as President of The Book House. In addition to being Editor, Olive was elected Vice-President by the Board of Directors, who hoped that this post would keep her from pursuing a more managerial role in the company. Olive achieved the position of Chairman of the Board in 1939 and held it until 1954.
The Book House for Children was sold to United Educators in 1954. Olive remained Chairman of the Board in an advisory capacity until she retired in 1962. She moved to Tucson, AZ where she lived with her daughter Virginia (Miller) Read and family until her death on March 25, 1968.
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
August 18, 2017
A Picturesque Tale of Progress is a nine-book set of children's history books by the same author as the My Bookhouse series. Originally published in 1933, and reprinted in the 1950s, these books follow the history of human beings around the world from the stone age through the exploration of the Americas. This first book, Beginnings I, starts out with a fictionalized narrative of what life may have been like during the stone age. Using technological advancements (development of tools, discovery of fire, etc.) as a guide, the text traces the development of the human race through its most primitive stages, and then shifts its focus to ancient Egypt. The book ends with the decline of Egypt after many centuries of great power and prosperity.
Though I still have two years before my oldest is required to attend school, I'm starting to evaluate potential homeschool resources. We recently purchased this set at a used bookstore, and I decided the easiest thing to do - especially given this month's nonfiction focus for the Old School Kidlit Reading Challenge - would be to simply read through the whole thing and write up my thoughts. I don't expect to get through the entire set during this month, but we'll see how things go.
My first impression of this book, for the first 75 pages or so, was that it was very readable. At that point, I was considering it as a possible resource for first grade. The characters the author creates to represent different types of primitive people felt very relateable (even if they had silly names), and I found everything very easy to follow.
When the focus shifted to real historical figures, however, it seemed like there was a big jump in reading level. The book is very detailed in its treatment of Egyptian history, naming every pharaoh in succession and explaining how each one contributed to the culture of his time. As it goes on, this section of the book also incorporates a variety of first-person accounts and folk tales, involving the gods worshiped by the ancient Egyptians and narratives recorded on papyrus scrolls discovered centuries later. It is a lot of information, and after a while, my eyes completely glazed over. A few key figures jumped out at me as very interesting and appealing to learn about, especially Hatshepsut, the first female pharaoh and Akhenaten, the first pharaoh to promote the idea of a loving, all-knowing God, but much of the rest of the text seemed unnecessarily detailed. Though there are illustrations, I felt like I really would have benefited from a chart to help me keep track off all the Thutmoses and Amenhoteps. And I also questioned whether every single one of these pharaohs was significant enough to merit a mention.
I did like the summary at the back of the book, and I think it would be very beneficial for me to read the summary of each book before introducing it in our homeschool. It contextualizes all of that information to give a sense of what the author is really trying to convey, and helps clarify which details are really paramount to understanding this time period and which are secondary. When I was a kid, I had a really hard time reading history texts because I could never figure out which were the key names, facts, dates, and events. I definitely want to be able to teach my kids how to read history and actually get something out of it, so it helps a lot to have that quick summary to keep me focused.
Having finished this book, I can say that it is definitely too much for an early elementary school student, so we'll be saving the series for the middle grades when we'll want a bit more detail. I'm looking forward to the next volume, Beginnings II, as it includes a lot of Biblical history, which will hopefully be a lot more familiar to me!
This review also appears on my blog, Read-at-Home Mom.
Though I still have two years before my oldest is required to attend school, I'm starting to evaluate potential homeschool resources. We recently purchased this set at a used bookstore, and I decided the easiest thing to do - especially given this month's nonfiction focus for the Old School Kidlit Reading Challenge - would be to simply read through the whole thing and write up my thoughts. I don't expect to get through the entire set during this month, but we'll see how things go.
My first impression of this book, for the first 75 pages or so, was that it was very readable. At that point, I was considering it as a possible resource for first grade. The characters the author creates to represent different types of primitive people felt very relateable (even if they had silly names), and I found everything very easy to follow.
When the focus shifted to real historical figures, however, it seemed like there was a big jump in reading level. The book is very detailed in its treatment of Egyptian history, naming every pharaoh in succession and explaining how each one contributed to the culture of his time. As it goes on, this section of the book also incorporates a variety of first-person accounts and folk tales, involving the gods worshiped by the ancient Egyptians and narratives recorded on papyrus scrolls discovered centuries later. It is a lot of information, and after a while, my eyes completely glazed over. A few key figures jumped out at me as very interesting and appealing to learn about, especially Hatshepsut, the first female pharaoh and Akhenaten, the first pharaoh to promote the idea of a loving, all-knowing God, but much of the rest of the text seemed unnecessarily detailed. Though there are illustrations, I felt like I really would have benefited from a chart to help me keep track off all the Thutmoses and Amenhoteps. And I also questioned whether every single one of these pharaohs was significant enough to merit a mention.
I did like the summary at the back of the book, and I think it would be very beneficial for me to read the summary of each book before introducing it in our homeschool. It contextualizes all of that information to give a sense of what the author is really trying to convey, and helps clarify which details are really paramount to understanding this time period and which are secondary. When I was a kid, I had a really hard time reading history texts because I could never figure out which were the key names, facts, dates, and events. I definitely want to be able to teach my kids how to read history and actually get something out of it, so it helps a lot to have that quick summary to keep me focused.
Having finished this book, I can say that it is definitely too much for an early elementary school student, so we'll be saving the series for the middle grades when we'll want a bit more detail. I'm looking forward to the next volume, Beginnings II, as it includes a lot of Biblical history, which will hopefully be a lot more familiar to me!
This review also appears on my blog, Read-at-Home Mom.
October 31, 2020
I pre-read this to decide if I wanted to schedule it for my middle schoolers for ancient history. This is "living" history. She writes in a lively, engaging story-like manner and includes several photos taken from archeology. One time she even mentions a remote tomb in Egypt that she visited for the information!
Content considerations:
However, as a believer in the inspired Word of God, her liberal leanings are unacceptable. (I use "liberal" referring to theological liberalism--not taking God's Word literally, esp. Gen. 1-11, not believing the miracles.) The most obvious place where it shows in this book is that the "pre-history" sections lean towards evolution and have no mention of the creation story or the stories we're used to from Genesis. Instead, she tells, in a very interesting manner, a story of made-up Neanderthal families as they move from being very very simple and animal-like to learning how to do more things. Another evidence--the Bible's telling of Noah gets its inspiration or basis from the Epic of Gilgamesh! Also--LOTS of breasts in these pictures or naked children. I took a sharpie pen to several of the pictures, hopefully without destroying the artwork.
I will probably assign much of the historical sections on Egypt to my 7th grader, maybe some even to my 9th grader. I loved how she interwove the literature or quotations of the historical figure into the history.
Content considerations:
However, as a believer in the inspired Word of God, her liberal leanings are unacceptable. (I use "liberal" referring to theological liberalism--not taking God's Word literally, esp. Gen. 1-11, not believing the miracles.) The most obvious place where it shows in this book is that the "pre-history" sections lean towards evolution and have no mention of the creation story or the stories we're used to from Genesis. Instead, she tells, in a very interesting manner, a story of made-up Neanderthal families as they move from being very very simple and animal-like to learning how to do more things. Another evidence--the Bible's telling of Noah gets its inspiration or basis from the Epic of Gilgamesh! Also--LOTS of breasts in these pictures or naked children. I took a sharpie pen to several of the pictures, hopefully without destroying the artwork.
I will probably assign much of the historical sections on Egypt to my 7th grader, maybe some even to my 9th grader. I loved how she interwove the literature or quotations of the historical figure into the history.
January 29, 2008
Out of print, this is what I use to teach history to my kids. I like the authors tone of voice, the depth and the illustrations which are based on historical images but are not photos. (although there is some nudity) I give it four stars only because it doesn't compare with books like Eye Witness for fascinating photos that really intrigue you. The text is readable, clear enough for children to understand and covers a lot of information for each civilization. (I'm learning things and I studied history in college for two years) 9 volumes which includes an index
August 10, 2014
I really have been enjoying reading this with my kids...I don't agree with everything in the prehistory section but I like how she even explains that there is no written accounts during this time and this is mans best guess at how things happened. It was a good way to talk this over with the kids and explain that there are lots of different guesses people have before recorded history but that we have the bible to give us more information on how things started.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews