[ Education. Baby boom.]

[“Report to the Citizens of Denver from the Denver Public Schools.”] [Seven Denver Public Schools brochures on the Baby Boom generation.]

Denver: Colorado: Denver Public Schools Board of Education, 1948-52. A fascinating look at education in America during the early years of the Baby Boom. Some toning to a couple brochures. Contemporary ink signature of Carol Weale, a lifelong Denver resident and educator, in each brochure. Contemporary ink marking to one brochure. Still a near-fine set of rare brochures. Seven brochures, 9 x 6 in. (folded). The brochures are as follows: Where Will I Go to School? (September 1952); O.J. Goldrick Would Be Surprised (May 1952); Some Very Important People (April 1952); There’s More to Reading Than Meets the Eye (April 1949); two copies of Schools Must Follow the Moving Vans (April 1948); They’re Already Knocking at Our Doors! (April 1948). Printed in black and one color each with vignettes and maps of the Denver area. The text of There’s More to Reading Than Meets the Eye is attributed to A. Helen Anderson and the illustrations to Hero L. Conesny. Item #17720

These brochures were issued as the postwar baby boom hit Denver (and the rest of the country). Twice as many children were born in the city in 1950 than in 1940 (10,440 children compared to 5,462), according to the Where Will I Go to School? brochure. The population of Denver also increased by nearly a third between 1940 and 1950, going from about 322,000 people to almost 416,000. The population increase strained Denver infrastructure, requiring the installation of “thousands of new water taps and miles of new water mains” as well as “thousands of new telephones, gas and electric meters…[and] thousands of new homes on the tax rolls” (Where Will I Go to School?). Denver public schools were pushed to capacity by the flood of new students, and these brochures address the efforts of the Denver school board to increase school capacity and keep schools staffed. The brochures also address literacy and changing educational standards between generations (see There’s More to Reading Than Meets the Eye). The O.J. Goldrick brochure refers to a Denver folk hero who was the city’s first schoolteacher and helped establish early infrastructure (like the first library, Sunday school, and newspaper) and wonders whether he would be surprised by Denver’s recent growth.

OCLC records one copy of this edition of O.J. Goldrick Would be Surprised (BYU) and one copy of a 1957 printing of There’s More to Reading Than Meets the Eye (University of Alberta, Canada). OCLC records no other copies of any of these brochures.

Price: $250.00