This study examines the specific recommendations of prominent educators and student readers of the nineteenth century regarding word recognition instruction and the varied activities which support such instruction. In the nineteenth century books, the authors examine all explicit instructions to the teachers in both front and end matter and then the contents of the lessons for any additional features that would allow the prescribed method to be used with fidelity. It is likely that teachers were most reliant upon teaching instructions embedded directly in the readers they were using with children. The primary focus is on word recognition because it was generally considered to be the equivalent of reading until the end of the century when comprehension instruction emerged. The methods discussed include the alphabet, word, phonic, and combination methods because they represent the mainstream of instruction in the century. After the colonial period, the authors roughly follow chronological developments throughout the nineteenth century ending with a description of the consensus at the turn to the twentieth century. They briefly describe how the twentieth century paralleled the nineteenth in a pattern of consensus to discord and return to consensus. Finally, they present a chart that summarizes characteristics of nineteenth century beginning reading textbooks. The chart shows the onset of new methods and features, the progression of methodology and the persistence or decline of those methods and features.