Use of a Topic Book or Notebook.
The teacher and pupil should appreciate the scope and usefulness of a Topic book or Notebook. By this is meant a blank book with semi-flexible or board covers, of a convenient size, and of at least 48 pages. Into this blank book should be written carefully with ink brief notes as the several chapters of this book are read or studied. It may well be a kind of enlarged diary of the pupil's work.
Make brief notes of the various books read in whole or by topics; topics not treated in this book but discussed in the class, such as King Philip's War, the Mexican War, etc., and references to new books to be reserved for future reading and other subjects which will readily suggest themselves.
This notebook should be well illustrated. The basis should be the inexpensive photographic copies (sold for about one cent each) of famous pictures illustrating important events in American history. Catalogues giving the exact titles, cost, and other details are sent to applicants, free of expense.
Portraits, maps, facsimiles of documents and autographs, etc., are often easily obtained from book catalogues, guide books, advertising pages, and secondhand text-books.
All this illustrative material should be pasted in the notebook at the proper place, neatly and with good judgment, allowing plenty of space for margins. Such a compilation is, of course, a matter of slow growth. It should be carefully preserved as a pleasant reminder of school days.
Note.—Think of enriching your notebook with photographic reproductions of such works as Stuart's "Washington"; Faed's "Washington at Trenton"; Trumbull's "Surrender of Cornwallis" and "Signing the Declaration of Independence"; Benjamin West's "Penn's Treaty"; Leutze's "Washington Crossing the Delaware"; Vanderlyn's "Landing of Columbus"; Johnson's "Old Ironsides" and Overend's "An August Morning with Farragut."