The content of elementary school reading methods textbooks spanning approximately 100 years was analyzed to note patterns of emphasis for selected topics. Four to six books were chosen for analysis from each of six time periods: 1890 to 1930, and each of the decades from the 1940s to the 1980s. Each book was evaluated with a checklist of 17 major topics usually included in a reading methods course. The number of pages devoted to each topic and the percentage of the total book that number represented were computed. The analysis showed that, in most cases, methods textbook content reflected actual instructional practices. Oral reading, for example, received much coverage in the early 1900s, but little in the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s. The instructional prominence of the basal reader in the 1950s and the interest in and research about comprehension in the 1980s were both reflected in the textbooks of their respective time periods. Recent interest in children with special needs also received emphasis in the textbooks of the 1970s and 1980s. The findings support the idea that college instructors present a fairly stable body of reading knowledge to preservice elementary school teachers.