Reading on the Border: The Culture of Print in Osage, Iowa, 1870 to 1900

During the nineteenth century, an evolving print culture accompanied such features of American industrialization as institutionalization, bureaucratization, a nation-wide communications system and a developing class structure; by the end of the century, reading had become an essential part of Americans' everyday activities. However, the history of reading in America has so far focused mainly on middle class individuals living in north-eastern cities before 1876. Researchers know little about "ordinary" people's print encounters--what and how they read, and what uses they made of print.

This study investigates reading practices in one small, rural, midwestern community--Osage, Iowa--by analyzing primary source material on education, religious life, a reading club and business affairs. An important part harnesses accessions and circulation records of the public library--an ubiquitous but under-studied institution that provides a unique window into the reading practices of men and women of various ages, classes, ethnicities and religions.

As print producers and consumers, Osage inhabitants participated in the spread of nation-wide commercialism, the sacralization of high culture and a growing emphasis on rationality and scientific values. The study identifies four dimensions of reading: oral-silent, intensive-extensive, solitary-social and passive-active. Osage citizens experienced a variety of modes, depending on reading context. The study also explores the interaction of print with identities of class, gender, age, ethnicity, and religion that structured, and were shaped by, the inhabitants' reading practices. Dominant groups used print to develop a representation of themselves and Osage, and to establish Anglophone, Protestant, middle class values as definitive of the whole community.

However, inhabitants also used print to question establishment values. Through print, women debated conventional images of womanhood, and public library data suggest that reading preferences of men and women (a subject of great speculation but little hard data), differed somewhat less than stereotypes claimed. The picture of print use in Osage is complex and defies reduction, but supports the view that placing print in a community context, and viewing printed materials as an expression of activities rather than mere artifacts, enhances the understanding and analysis of print culture.