I'm trying to identify a short story about robots learning how to replicate independently of humans.
It was included in a textbook at Hampden Sydney College in Virginia during the early to mid 1950’s, but could date back to the 1930's.
A possible title is "Robby’s Robots". It is also possible the main character is named Robby or Robbie and the phrase “Robby’s robots” is mentioned in the story.
A closer possible, at least partial, match than "Robbie" is "R.U.R. "Rossum's Universal Robots" by Karel Čapek (1920).
It has been a long time since I read it; there are numerous summaries and synopses and study guides online.
There are more or possibly better summaries than on Wikipedia; Britannica has one, and here is another summary.
It is also on Gutenberg.
A firm invents androids (which have some biological matter), but Capek coined the term "robot".
There is eventually a war between humans and "robots" intelligent enough to desire freedom. Eventually all humans are killed except one of the sympathetic humans. The robots manufacture everything, including other androids/robots.
(1) Story plot match: The "robots' manufacture everything eventually, including other andoids/robots.
(2) Time-period match: Although I couldn't find a textbook containing it on ISFDB, even the translation into English is old enough to have been in textbooks even before the 1950s or the 1930s.
(3) Possible similar-anthology match: It is also in anthologies such as the 1954 anthology about robots and androids, "Science-Fiction Thinking Machines: Robots, Androids, Computers" edited by Groff Conklin.
(I do not know how often it was used in schools, although I would have read it enthusiastically in my grade school or high school.)
(4) Possible phrase-match: A decades-old memory could misremember "Rossum's Universal Robots" somewhat differently as "Robbie's Robots".
(Asimov's "Robbie" was also famous, which would make misremembering or conflating the names even easier.)
Given the title it seems likely this is Asimov's Robbie
Mr. Weston approaches his wife with the idea of touring a robot factory. Gloria can then see robots as inanimate objects, not "people". During the tour, Mr. Weston asks to see a room where robots make other robots.
