To read the complete article, see:
Merited behavior: Rewarding the 19th century schoolchild (http://americanhistory.si.edu/blog/merited-behavior)

John Sallay of Boston, MA writes:

REWARDS OF MERIT. TOKENS OF A CHILD'S PROGRESS AND A TEACHER'S ESTEEM...
FENN, Patricia and Alfred P. Malpa.
Ephemera Society of America, (1994),

First Edition. oblong quarto, cloth in dust jacket. 224pp. Ephemera Society of America, Item #11632

"Rewards of Merit are significant documents that illustrate attitudes toward religion, education, and achievement: values with which young Americans were inculcated...This book alsodemonstrates how evolving methods of the American printing arts have been reflected in every aspect of the production of Rewards of Merit...these examples of folk art and calligraphy,nineteenth-century printing through twentieth-century computer graphics, have affected children, parents, teachers..." Profusely illustrated in color, with hundreds of images. With a detailedindex and a useful "Directory of Booksellers, Engravers, Printers, Publishers, Stationers and related tradesmen who were involved in the design, production and distribution of Rewards of Meritin the United States."

For more information, or to order, see:
REWARDS OF MERIT. TOKENS OF A CHILD'SPROGRESS AND A TEACHER'S ESTEEM... (https://www.colophonbooks.com/pages/books/11632/patricia-fenn-alfred-p-malpa/rewards-of-merit-tokens-of-a-childs-progress-and-a-teachers-esteem)