This sample book consists only of specimen pages and plates. Unlike canvassing books, and even many sample books, which have only representative pages and plates, this specimen is complete up to page 144, where it simply stops. Anticipating the end of the Civil War, the publishers were attempting to be among the first to profit from it. According to them, "Volume II will be published so soon as practicable after the close of the War, and in all respects will be fully equal to Vol. I." This specimen, intended for magazine and newspaper editors, was an attempt to solicit favorable notices even before publication. The publisher also produced a distinct canvassing book for this title, to be used by book agents soliciting subscriptions. The back of the wrappers, announcing that the work will be "sold exclusively by subscription," provides a price list for the work and advertises for agents to sell it.

This sample book-stamped "Sample" on the front cover-is complete. While it contains no subscription conditions or blank pages on which to list subscriptions, it does contain a sample alternative binding style. The agent using this book must have had an order book to take down subscription details.

This order book contains a one-page prospectus for the work and sixty-three blue subscription leaves. An order book was often used in conjunction with a sample book, which would give the prospective subscriber some idea of what he or she was buying. However, the publisher may have printed up order books for Kane's work prior to printing any of it, possibly to see how many advance subscriptions it could obtain. George Childs, in his Recollections, recounts using what was either a sample book or a canvassing book to sell Arctic Explorations. This indicates that more than an order book existed for this work, although it does not clarify the ways in which these two related sales props were used.

This is a combination canvassing outfit (also called a Grand Combination Outfit). It represents multiple titles together with examples of their bindings and sample texts. Sometimes these outfits had leather handles for convenient carrying. The format was used almost exclusively for children's books, although some general books "for the family" might also be included, as in this outfit. The order begins with books for babies and toddlers, and moves through titles directed at ever-older audiences. Their range might include entertaining stories and poems, religious works, and educational texts. These books were often pitched to mothers, who, of course, sought only the best for their families and were also thought to have primary responsibility for their intellectual improvement.

This unusual canvassing book contains a complete text as well as the normal broadside advertisement and subscription leaves. Presumably the publisher thought it advisable to show prospective buyers everything that this edition contained, since it is an enlarged edition of a work that had already been sold in another form. In this case, completeness can not diminish the work's market, since it is a reference book, not a one-time read.

This canvassing book contains a price list, subscriber leaves, and the title and sample pages from one hundred and fifty titles--the publisher's "line." Two sample spines give purchasers an idea of the kinds of bindings to expect. Unlike individual canvassing books, which offered prospective buyers several binding choices, these samples allow purchasers no choices at all.