Harper's Family Library

Harper's Family Library was an influential American book series published by the New York publisher J. & J. Harper, founded by brothers James and John Harper.

Introduction

Launched in 1830, the series was among the first major efforts in the United States to produce affordable, non-fiction books for a general audience. It was promoted as the “cheapest series of popular works ever published”, and over the years it grew to a total of 127 works included in 187 volumes.
The Family Library was published in the years 1830-1842 and focused on the principal fields of “useful knowledge,” such as history, voyages and travel, biography, natural history, physical sciences, agriculture, and the history of philosophy and religion. Its concept was based on the idea that the intellectual value of each individual volume was enhanced by being part of a broader, organized body of knowledge:

"It was suggested that the intellectual value of any one book was enhanced by its being part of an approved system or circle of knowledge."

The first volume in the series was The History of the Jews by Oxford historian Henry Hart Milman. According to Joseph Jacobs and S. J. Levinson, the work

"brought down on him the censure of the Church. This history is aggressively rationalistic; it treats the Jews as an Oriental tribe, and all miracles are either eliminated or evaded. He was nevertheless presented with a piece of plate by some representative Jews in recognition of his sympathetic attitude. His history was republished in 1863 and 1867."

A notable entry in the series was Richard Henry Dana Jr.'s Two Years Before the Mast, which appeared as volume 106.
The series remains a significant example of early American publishing innovation and public education through literature.
One hundred and ten of these works were reissued in the Harper's School District Library. The volumes of the Harper's Family Library are :

Volumes

001-003 Milman’s History of the Jews
004-005 Lockhart’s Life of Napoleon
006 Southey’s Life of Lord Nelson
007 William’s Life of Alexander
008, 074 Natural History of Insects
009 Galt’s Life of Lord Byron
010 Bush’s Life of Mohammed
011 Scott’s Letters on Demonology
012-013 Gleig’s History of the Bible
014 Leslie’s Discovery in the Polar
015 Croly’s Life of George IV
016 Jameson’s Discovery and Adventure in Africa
017-019, 066-067 Cunningham’s Lives of Celebrated Painters
020 James’s History of Chivalry and the Crusades
021-022 Bell’s Life of Mary Queen of Scots
023 Russell’s View of Ancient and Modern Egypt
024 Fletcher’s History of Poland
025 Smith’s Festivals, Games
026 Brewster’s Life of Sir Isaac Newton
027 Russell’s History of Palestine
028 Memes’s Memoirs of the Empress Josephine
029 Court and Camp of Napoleon
030 Lives and Voyages of Drake, Cavendish, Dampier
031 Barrow’s Pitcairn’s Island and the Mutiny
032, 072, 084 Turner’s Sacred History of the World
033-034 Jameson’s Lives of Celebrated Female Sovereigns
035-036 Lander’s Travels in Africa
037 Abercrombie’s Essay on the Intellectual Powers
037 Maury’s Principles of Eloquence
038-040 St. John’s Lives of Celebrated Travelers
041-042 Dover’s Life of Frederick the Great
043-044 Smedley’s Sketches from Venetian History
045-046 Thatcher’s Indian Biography
047-049 Murray’s British India
050 Brewster’s Letters on Natural Magic
051-052 Taylor’s History of Ireland
053 Tytler’s Discovery in North America
054 Humboldt’s Travels and Researches
055-056 Euler’s Natural Philosophy
057 Mudie’s Guide to the Observation of Nature
058 Abercrombie’s Philosophy of the Moral feelings
059 Dick’s Improvement of Society
060 James’s History of Charlemagne
061 Russell’s Nubia and Abyssinia
062-063 Russell’s Life of Oliver Cromwell
064 Montgomery’s Lectures on Literature
065 Barrow’s Life of Peter the Great
068-069 Crichton’s History of Arabia
070 Fraser’s Historical and Descriptive Account of Persia
071 Combe’s Principles of Physiology
073 Russell’s History of the Barbary States
075-076 Paulding’s Life of Washington
077 Ticknor’s Philosophy of Living
078 Higgin’s Physical Condition of the Earth
079 Sforzosi’s History of Italy
080-081 Davis’s China and the Chinese
082 An Historical Account of the Circumnavigation of the Globe: and of the Progress of Discovery in the Pacific Ocean, from the Voyage of Magellan to the Death of Cook
083 Dick’s Celestial Scenery
085 Griscom’s Animal Mechanism
086-089 Tytler’s Universal History
092-093 Franklin Life and Writings of Franklin
094-095 Pursuit of Knowledge Under Difficulties
096-097 Paley’s Natural Theology
098 Rennie’s Natural History of Birds
099 Dick’s Sidereal Heavens
100 Upham on Imperfect and Disordered Mental Action
101-102 Murray’s Historical Account of British America
103 Lossing’s History of the Fine Arts
104 Rennie’s Natural History of Quadrupeds
105 Park, Life and Travels of Mungo Park
106 Dana’s Two Years Before the Mast
107-108 Parry’s Three Voyages to the North Pole
109-110 Life and Writings of Samuel Johnson
111 Bryant’s Selections from American Poets
112-113 Halleck’s Selections from British Poets
114-118 Keightley’s History of England
119-120 Hale’s United States
121-122 Irving’s Life and Writings of Oliver Goldsmith
123-124 Lives of Distinguished Men of Modern Times
125 Renwick’s life of De Witt Clinton
126-127 Mackenzie’s Life of O. H. Perry
128 Head’s Life of Bruce, The African Traveler
129 Renwick’s Life of John Jay and Alexander Hamilton
130 Brewster’s Lives of Galileo, Tycho Brahe, and Kepler
131 History of Iceland, Greenland, and the Faroe Islands
132 Siebold’s Japan and the Japanese
133 Dwight’s History of Connecticut
134-135 Bucke’s Ruins of Ancient Cities
136-137 History of Denmark, Sweden and Norway
138 Camp on Democracy
139 Lanman’s History of Michigan
140 Fenelon’s Lives of the Ancient Philosophers
141-142 Segur’s History of Napoleon’s Expedition to Russia
143-144 Henry’s Epitome of the History of Philosophy
145 Bucke’s Beauties, Harmonies and Sublimities of Nature
146 Lieber’s Essays on Property and Labor
147 White’s Natural History of Selborne
148 Wrangell’s Expedition to Siberia
149-150 Hazen’s Popular Technology
151-153 Spalding’s History of Italy
154-155 Lewis and Clarke’s Travels
156 Smith’s History of Education
157 Fraser’s History of Mesopotamia
158 Russell’s History of Polynesia
159 Davenport’s Perilous Adventures
160 Duer’s Constitutional Jurisprudence of the US
161-163 Belknap’s American Biography
164 Natural History of the Elephant
165 Potter’s Hand-book for Reader’s and Students
166 Graves’s Woman in America
167-168 Stone’s Border Wars of the American Revolution
169 Vegetable Substances Used for the Food of Man
170 Michelet’s Elements of Modern History
171 Bacon’s Essays, and Locke on the Understanding
172 Voyages round the world, from the death of Captain Cook to the present time; including remarks on the social condition of the inhabitants in the recently-discovered countries: their progress in the arts; and more especially their advancement in religious knowledge
173 Murray’s Travels of Marco Polo
174-175 Sargent’s American Adventure by Land and Sea
176 Bunner’s History of Louisiana
177 Florian’s Moors in Spain
178 Lee’s Elements of Geology
179 Brougham’s Pleasures and Advantages of Science
180 Moseley’s Illustrations of Mechanics
181-182 Selections from the Spectator
183 Potter’s Political Economy
185 Robertson’s History of America Abridged
186 Robertson’s History of Charles V Abridged
187 Ferguson’s History of the Roman Republics Abridged

Literature

Robert S. Freeman: “Harper and Brothers Family and School District Libraries, 1830–1846”, in: , herausgegeben von Robert S. Freeman, David M. Hovde
Eugene Exman: The Brothers Harper: A Unique Publishing Partnership and its Impact Upon the Cultural Life of America from 1817 to 1853. 1965
Joseph Henry Harper: The House of Harper: A Century of Publishing in Franklin Square. Harper & brothers, 1912