A Practical Arithmetic by George Albert Wentworth

A Practical Arithmetic by George Albert Wentworth is a 372-page mathematics textbook has a brown cover and a reddish binding. This copy was published by Ginn & Company in 1899. The title was originally published by 1881. The book contains a vocabulary list; notation examples; word problems; and examples for short processes of addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, fractions, decimals, money, measurements, and percentages. At the end of the book are forty-one pages of answers. Inside the front cover is a graphite signature by "Ella W. King." The front and back endpapers are inscribed with equations and fractions, and a folded piece of lined paper handwritten with 10 "Arithmetic" problems is inserted between pages 306 and 307. There is also an inscription which reads “Arithmetic Varian, Harold.”

George Albert Wentworth (1835-1906) was an author of numerous math textbooks. He was born in Wakefield, New Hampshire and received elementary training in the district school and the local academy in Wakefield. In 1852 he entered Phillips Exeter Academy and later attended Harvard, graduating in 1858.

Edwin Ginn founded the publishing company Ginn Brothers in the City of Boston in 1867. The firm was reorganized under the name Ginn & Company in 1885 and became particularly known for its school texts. In 1895, the company built a new publishing factory, the Athenaeum Press, in Cambridge. Ginn & Company continued to be a successful publisher of educational texts for 70 years.

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