Red Feather: A Book of Indian Life and Tales by Margaret E. Morcomb (Art Deco School Primer), Circa 1930s 📚🧡🏹

This volume of Red Feather: A Book of Indian Life and Tales is a top-shelf decorative artifact of American elementary education.

The book is an authenticated school primer published by the major firm Lyons & Carnahan. It is visually distinguished by its striking Art Deco cover design and saturated orange-red color palette.

Its value is secured by the bold aesthetic quality and its function as a tangible record of the early 20th-century school curriculum for "Guidance In Reading Program".

2. About the Artwork/Book/Object 📖✍️✨ The book is a collection of short narratives intended for a primary teacher's reading program, designed to teach literacy through stories of Native American culture. The narratives follow the adventures of the title character, Red Feather, detailing activities like "The Canoe Race," "The Buffalo Hunt," and a section on Hiawatha.

The aesthetic of the book is characterized by Art Deco-influenced illustrations that use flat, bold colors—a significant stylistic departure from the detailed engravings of the Victorian era. The endpapers feature simple, highly stylized silhouette scenes of a tepee and canoe, executed entirely in burnt orange and beige .

3. About the Artist/Author/Maker ✍️🏛️ Margaret E. Morcomb is noted on the title page as a Primary Teacher in Cicero, Illinois. Her background as an educator directly informed the text's clear, repetitive language structure, which was necessary for teaching literacy in the 1930s.

The publisher, Lyons & Carnahan, was a major force in American educational publishing throughout the first half of the 20th century. By maintaining offices across the country—including Chicago, Dallas, San Francisco, and New York—they ensured this curriculum reached public schools nationwide, confirming the book’s institutional significance.

4. Historical/Political Era Context 🌍🕰️📜 This primer was published during the early to mid-1930s, placing it in the heart of the Great Depression. Despite the economic hardship, American education saw a focus on structured reading programs to improve national literacy rates.

The book’s content—stories about Native American life—reflects the period’s effort to incorporate early multicultural themes into the curriculum, albeit often through a generalized and stylized lens. The cover design, with its simple, block graphic and saturated orange color, is a clear product of the Art Deco aesthetic of the 1930s, which had migrated from high fashion to consumer and educational products. The book functions as a tangible record of the aesthetics and educational priorities of the era.

5. The Ideal Collector 💡🧐🏛️ This volume is an essential acquisition for a curator of American Educational Ephemera and children's book illustration.

It is ideally suited for a collector who specializes in 1930s Art Deco cover design and early American school primers documenting historical approaches to cultural education. The book belongs in a collection that prioritizes the visual history of textbooks over general literary scarcity.

6. Value & Rarity 💎✨🏛️ This book is approximately 85 to 95 years old, surviving decades of circulation within public school systems.

Its Bibliographical Scarcity is low as a school primer produced in high volume. The monetary value is sustained entirely by its Aesthetic Premium—the striking orange cloth cover and the bold, Art Deco-style graphic design . Its worth is derived from its status as a visually distinct and highly authentic documentary artifact of American educational material.

7. Condition 🔎📚✨ The physical condition has been assessed directly from the provided high-resolution photography. The book is deemed to be in Fair to Good Antique Condition, with wear consistent with its institutional history.

• Binding: Bound in original publisher's orange cloth with black graphic stamping.

• Cover Art: The Art Deco-style cover illustration is vibrant and fully intact.

• Wear: The cloth binding shows rubbing, fading, and darkening along the spine and edges consistent with heavy school use.

• Internal Markings: Features crayon scribble and excisions on the endpapers, indicating a history of institutional cataloging and later removal .

• Text Block: The text block is secure, with toning appropriate for its age.

• Illustrations: Contains vibrant color illustrations throughout, which are intact.

8. Fun Facts & Unique Features 🤓📜🤩

• The Cicero Connection: Author Margaret E. Morcomb's direct affiliation with Cicero, Illinois (a Chicago suburb), suggests the book was likely designed and marketed for schools in the heavily industrialized Midwest.

• The Endpaper Art: The striking orange and black endpaper illustrations, showing a tepee and a canoeing figure, are a great example of the bold, simplified silhouette style popular in 1930s graphic design.

• The Content Breadth: The primer contained not just fictional stories, but lessons on practical life, such as "Making Indian Clothes," "Baking Bread," and a section on the historical figure Hiawatha.

• The "Guidance" Goal: The phrase "Guidance In Reading Program" on the title page confirms this book was part of a structured, federally recognized educational push for literacy in the early 20th century.

9. Supporting Information 🏷️📦💰

• Object Type: Antique School Primer / Textbook

• Author: Margaret E. Morcomb

• Title: Red Feather: A Book of Indian Life and Tales

• Year/Period: Circa 1930s (Undated, Early Edition)

• Publisher: Lyons & Carnahan

• Place of Origin: Chicago, Dallas, New York (Multiple Offices)

• Format/Binding: Publisher’s Orange Cloth

• Edition/Rarity: Early Edition, Institutional Documentary Artifact

• Transcription of Markings (Endpaper): Crayon scribble (Unreadable) / Excised bookplate area (Institutional removal)