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In keeping with last week’s blog on things academic, this week we’ll look at some of the early textbooks produced by Davidson faculty and alumni.
One of the most famous textbooks connect to Davidson College is D. H. Hill’s Elements of Algebra. It’s publication between 1857-1859 overlapped with his time as a professor at Davidson (1853-1858). Hill forewent a preface or introduction and plunged directly into his definitions of mathematics — which managed to incorporate references to hope and fear — but perhaps not in the way most students would expect:
The operations of the mind, such as hope, fear, joy, grief, etc., are not quantities. For, although we speak of a great hope and a small hope, there is no definite unit of comparison by which to measure its magnitude.
Henry Elliott Shepherd, class of 
1862, did not graduate from Davidson as an undergraduate but did earn a Masters degree from Davidson in 1874, the same year his “The History of the English Language from the Teutonic Invasion of Britain to the Close of the Georgian Era” was published. Eight years later, Shepherd became the president of Charleston College.
John Bunyon Shearer came to Davidson in 1888 as president and immediately instituted a course in Bible instruction, which he taught. Previous classes in Bible at Davidson had focused on learning Greek, Shearer brought the innovation of reading the Bible in English. He also wrote a series of textbooks for Bible instruction. He stepped down as president in 1901 but continued to teach Bible and Moral Philosophy.
Another Daniel H. Hill wrote textbooks, son of Professor D. H. Hill and class of 1880, this Hill wrote on a number of topics ranging from a first reader (1906) to “Agriculture for Beginners.” (1903-1914) The library at North Carolina State University is named for him.
William S. Currell had left his Davidson professorship by the time he became the editor for a revised version of a “History of Virginia for the Use of Schools” in 1914. During his time at Davidson, 1886-1895, his assignment of essays on the French Revolution, including one of “Influence of Women on the French Revolution” generated enough interest to rate a quarter column in the student magazine. He also left his imprint on the college through his assistance in creating the first yearbook, “Quips and Cranks.”
We’ll end this series with the work of Reed Smith, class of 1901, who along with being a professor of English at the University of South Carolina also produced readers for elementary schools for Ginn and Company and we hope inspired a love of books and stories in many children — even future Davidson students.
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