Do you recall when you first encountered a book? For many people, their first exposure to books comes in the form of image-rich children\u2019s literature. Picture books from childhood evoke fond memories. Illustrated books excite the imagination while helping the child learn to read. Children\u2019s books also often serve to impart lessons. School books are one example tied to curricular goals. Fairy tales combine whimsy with social and moral instruction.
The books, paintings, and drawings on view here raise many questions about the role of adults in the creation of children\u2019s literature. Adults producing books for children face a challenge, in seeking to communicate engagingly with younger audiences. In some examples, adults make use of subjects from children\u2019s literature in works aimed primarily at an older audience.. At the same time, many classic examples of children\u2019s literature speak simultaneously to adults and young people. In some of the most effective examples, a particular text and image will be perceived differently by a child and by an adult, while appealing to both.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
[UD_EXHIBITION_ITEM]<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Aubrey Beardsley (British, 1872 – 1898) Aubrey Beardsley colored this drawing after it had appeared as a black and white image in the July 1894 issue of The Yellow Book<\/em>. It was the second volume of the famous short-lived illustrated quarterly published in London from 1894 to 1897. The elegant black and white illustration in The Yellow Book<\/em> was accompanied by a grim description, attributed to Hector Sandus, imagining circumstances surrounding Cinderella\u2019s demise and her glass slippers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cFor you must have heard of the Princess Cinderella with her slim feet and shining slippers. She was beloved by Prince ****, who married her, but she died soon afterwards poisoned (according to Dr. Gerschovius) by her elder sister Arabella, with powdered glass. It was ground I suspect from those very slippers she danced in at the famous ball. For the slippers of Cinderella have never been found since. They are not at Cluny.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n [UD_EXHIBITION_ITEM]<\/em> <\/p>\n\n\n\n Charles Edward Conder (British, 1868 – 1909) This mysterious drawing was probably intended as a frontispiece or full page illustration for an 1899 version of The Story of Beauty and the Beast<\/em> published by Leonard Smithers, or it could have been intended for the 1908 version (on view nearby) issued by the John Lane Company. However, it ultimately remained unpublished.<\/p>\n\n\n\n [UD_EXHIBITION_ITEM]<\/em> <\/p>\n\n\n\n Ruth Collins Speers (20th Century) [UD_EXHIBITION_ITEM]<\/em> <\/p>\n\n\n\n Ruth Collins Speers (20th Century) Ruth Collins Speers (20th Century) Ruth Collins Speers (20th Century) Edwin John Prittie (American, 1879 – 1963) [UD_EXHIBITION_ITEM]<\/em> <\/p>\n\n\n\n Edwin John Prittie (American, 1879 – 1963) [UD_EXHIBITION_ITEM]<\/em> <\/p>\n\n\n\n Edwin John Prittie (American, 1879 – 1963) [UD_EXHIBITION_ITEM]<\/em> <\/p>\n\n\n\n Edwin John Prittie (American, 1879 – 1963) [UD_EXHIBITION_ITEM]<\/em> <\/p>\n\n\n\n Edwin John Prittie (American, 1879 – 1963) Florence Hoopes (American, 1895 \u2013 1970?) and [UD_EXHIBITION_ITEM]<\/em> <\/p>\n\n\n\n Florence Hoopes (American, 1895 \u2013 1970?) and Sisters Florence and Margaret Hoopes were Delaware natives but lived for much of their lives together in Philadelphia. These watercolors, complete with production notations, were made for two different volumes of the long-running Alice and Jerry Books series of reading primers for children published by the Row, Peterson Company from the 1930s into the 1960s. This series written by teachers and aimed at children from kindergarten through sixth grade, formed the backbone of the sisters\u2019 career as illustrators. Each drawing demonstrates an attempt by adults to communicate with children in the context of official educational curriculum. Here the hope was to make the task of learning to read colorful and appealing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n [UD_EXHIBITION_ITEM] <\/p>\n\n\n\n Violet Oakley (American, 1874 – 1961) Author: Evelyn Sharp (British, 1869 – 1955) [UD_EXHIBITION_ITEM]<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Author: Evelyn Sharp (British, 1869 – 1955) This imaginative book of fairy tales written by Evelyn Sharp is filled with thought-provoking stories such as \u201cThe Boy who Looked like a Girl.\u201d For this project, Sharp collaborated with the poster artist, illustrator, playwright, and novelist Mabel Dearmer, who died during World War I, serving as a nurse in Serbia. Dearmer worked in an Art Nouveau style- characterized by large flat areas of bright color, decorative and graceful line, and the use of strong outlining, which was as cutting-edge in the late 1890s as some of the topics in the stories.<\/p>\n\n\n\n [UD_EXHIBITION_ITEM]<\/em> <\/p>\n\n\n\n Author: Frederic E. Weatherly (British, 1848 – 1929) [UD_EXHIBITION_ITEM]<\/em> <\/p>\n\n\n\n Lost Opportunity<\/strong> Translator: Ernest Christopher Dowson (British, 1867 – 1900) [UD_EXHIBITION_ITEM]<\/em> <\/p>\n\n\n\n Translator: Ernest Christopher Dowson (British, 1867 – 1900) <\/p>\n\n\n\n Author: Oscar Wilde (British 1854-1900) [UD_EXHIBITION_ITEM]<\/em> <\/p>\n\n\n\n Author: Oscar Wilde (British 1854-1900) Oscar Wilde inscribed this first edition of The Happy Prince to<\/em> novelist Ouida in June of 1888. This elegant volume contains five stories intended for children with imagery by one of the most renowned illustrators of children\u2019s literature from the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries, Walter Crane.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Author: William Allingham (Irish, 1824 – 1889) [UD_EXHIBITION_ITEM] <\/p>\n\n\n\n Author: William Allingham (Irish, 1824 – 1889) This decorative and colorful book is filled with lavish engraved illustrations for William Allingham\u2019s whimsical poem about elves. Richard Doyle made the drawings and Edmund Evans engraved them for publication in the book. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, of Sherlock Holmes fame, once owned this volume, and his bookplate is affixed to the binding. He was the nephew of the illustrator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Author: Christina Rossetti (British, 1830 – 1894) [UD_EXHIBITION_ITEM] <\/p>\n\n\n\n Author: Christina Rossetti (British, 1830 – 1894) Author: Lewis Carroll (Charles Dodgson, British, 1832-1898) [UD_EXHIBITION_ITEM]<\/em> <\/p>\n\n\n\n Author: Lewis Carroll (Charles Dodgson, British, 1832-1898) For this first Italian version of Alice\u2019s Adventures in Wonderland<\/em> at least one subtle change was made to John Tenniel\u2019s famous illustrations\u2014the price tag on the Mad Hatter\u2019s hat is in lira, not shillings. The Dalziel Brothers, one of the premier firms of wood engravers, had been responsible for transforming Tenniel\u2019s drawings when the one original English edition appeared in 1865. This copy is inscribed by Teodorico Pietroc\u1f78la-Rossetti, to his first cousin, the poet Christina Rossetti. Lewis Carroll met the translator through the Rossettis and helped support Pietroc\u1f78la-Rossetti\u2019s application to teach Dante at University College, London.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Artist and illustrator: Clarissa Sligh (American, b. 1939) [UD_EXHIBITION_ITEM]<\/em> <\/p>\n\n\n\n Artist and illustrator: Clarissa Sligh (American, b. 1939) Sligh\u2019s artist\u2019s book is a response to the Dick and Jane readers, used by millions of American children during the mid-twentieth century. The book featured the white children of an upper-middle class suburban family. Sligh writes that, as a child, the books left her feeling that her own African American family must be an aberration, since they were absent from the her schoolbooks. In Reading Dick and Jane with Me<\/em>, children from Sligh\u2019s neighborhood stand in for the Black children who were invisible in the original series.<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Do you recall when you first encountered a book? For many people, their first exposure to books comes in the form of image-rich children\u2019s literature. Picture books from childhood evoke fond memories. Illustrated books excite the imagination while helping the child learn to read. Children\u2019s books also often serve to impart lessons. 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The Slippers of Cinderella, 1894
ink and watercolor on paper
Mark Samuels Lasner Collection, Special Collections<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
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Beauty and the Beast, c. 1897 – 1900
ink and Chinese white on paper
Mark Samuels Lasner Collection, Special Collections<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
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\u201cThe Little Christmas Tree… Brown rabbit, brown rabbit, called the fir tree, I am as tall as you…\u201d, 1920 \u2013 1930
ink and graphite on paper <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe Slow Little Boy … Just as he said it, up from the grass popped a funny little fairy…\u201d, 1920 \u2013 1930
ink and graphite on paper <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe Hole in the Wall … The little girl looked quickly into the opening…\u201d, 1920 \u2013 1930
ink and graphite on paper <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe King and their mothers and fathers come to meet them…\u201d, 1920 -1930
ink and graphite on paper
Museums Collections, Gift of Margaret W. Litt<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
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For Jonathan Swift, Gulliver\u2019s Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World.<\/em>
Philadelphia: The John C. Winston Company, 1930
Museums Collections, Gift of Margaret W. Litt <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
[ \u201c… I found my arms and legs were strongly fastened on each side to the ground…\u201d], 1930
ink and gouache on paper<\/strong>
Book cover and related to an episode early in the book, pages 4 and 5. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI walked boldly five or six times before the very head of the cat\u201d, 1930
ink and gouache on paper<\/strong>
color illustration facing page 96. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
[At my entrance he called aloud to me not to disturb his webs.], 1930
ink on paper<\/strong>
black and white illustration embedded with the text, page 198. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI waved my cap toward the island\u201d, 1930
ink on paper<\/strong>
black and white illustration facing page 174.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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Margaret Hoopes (American, 1893 \u2013 1956)
[Boy in Sunflowers], 1938
For Mabel O\u2019Donnell, Down the River Road<\/em>. Evanston, Illinois: Row,
Peterson, and Company, 1938, page 55.
watercolor and graphite on paper
Museums Collections, Gift of Margaret W. Litt<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Margaret Hoopes (American, 1893 \u2013 1956)
Toys \u2013 Jerry saw toys and toys and toys, 1936
For Mabel O\u2019Donnell and Alice Carey, Day In and Day Out<\/em>. Evanston,
Illinois: Row, Peterson, and Company, 1936, page 3.
watercolor and graphite on paper
Museums Collections, Gift of Margaret W. Litt <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
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Portrait of Carolyn Haywood, c. 1920
graphite on paper
Museums Collections, Gift of Margaret W. Litt
<\/strong>
This elegant drawing, related to a painting at the Chestnut Hill branch of the Free Library of Pennsylvania, depicts a book illustrator reading a book by an artist who was also an illustrator. Layered meaning and layered connections are embedded in the work. It is an artifact from a society of female artists and illustrators in the Philadelphia area from the early twentieth century. Here, Violet Oakley, herself an illustrator, mural artist, and student of Howard Pyle, depicts Carolyn Haywood (1898 – 1990) her own student in both illustration and mural arts. Haywood studied not only with Oakley, but also with Elizabeth Shippen Green and Jessie Wilcox Smith, the three members of the Red Rose Girls artists\u2019 circle. The mirror and vase depicted in this drawing also can be found in art by Green and Smith. An indistinct figure in the mirror may be the reflection of Oakley. Haywood had a long and successful career as a children\u2019s book author and illustrator of her own work. Some of her most famous books include B is for Betsy, Primrose Day, Little Eddie<\/em>, and Eddie and His Big Deals.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n
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Illustrator: Mabel Dearmer (British, 1872 – 1915)
Wymps and Other Fairy Tales: With Eight Coloured Illustrations and a Cover by Mrs. Percy Dearmer.
First edition. New York and London: John Lane, the Bodley Head, 1897.
Mark Samuels Lasner Collection, Special Collections<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Illustrator: Mabel Dearmer (British, 1872 – 1915)
[The Boy who Looked like a Girl]
Color process engraving on paper<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
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Illustrator: Beatrix Potter (British, 1866 – 1943)
A Happy Pair: Illustrated by H.B.P. First edition. London: Hildesheimer & Faulkner and New York: Geo. C. Whitney, 1890.
Mark Samuels Lasner Collection, Special Collections<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
color lithograph on paper<\/strong>
Beatrix Potter, of Peter Rabbit<\/em> fame, had her first illustrations published in this slim book of verse. Many of Frederic Weatherly\u2019s poems, as seen in this example of \u201cLost Opportunity,\u201d contain surprisingly adult subtext in relation to the charming drawings of rabbits that seem aimed at a younger audience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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Illustrator: Charles Edward Conder (British, 1868 – 1909)
Printer: Lemercier, Paris
The Story of Beauty and the Beast: The Complete Fairy Story Translated from the French, With Plates in Colour by Charles Conder.
First edition. London: John Lane, The Bodley Head and New York: John Lane Company, 1908.
Mark Samuels Lasner Collection, Special Collections<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Illustrator: Charles Edward Conder (British, 1868 – 1909)
Printer: Lemercier, Paris
[Frontispiece]
color lithograph on paper<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
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Illustrators: Walter Crane (British, 1945-1915) and G.P. Jacomb Hood (British, 1857-1929)
The Happy Prince and Other Tales: Illustrated by Walter Crane and Jacomb Hood.
First edition. London: David Nutt, 1888.
Mark Samuels Lasner Collection, Special Collections<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Illustrators: Walter Crane (British, 1945-1915) and G.P. Jacomb Hood (British, 1857-1929)
[Frontispiece]
woodcut on paper<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
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Illustrator: Richard Doyle (British, 1824 – 1883)
Engraver: Edmund Evans (British, 1826 – 1905)
In Fairy-land: A Series of Pictures from the Elf-World.
First edition. London: Longmans, Green, Reader, & Dyer, 1870.
Mark Samuels Lasner Collection, Special Collections<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Illustrator: Richard Doyle (British, 1824 – 1883)
Engraver: Edmund Evans (British, 1826 – 1905)
[Frontispiece]
color wood engraving on paper<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
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Illustrator: Arthur Hughes (British, 1832 – 1915)
Engravers: Dalziel Brothers
Sing-Song: A Nursery Rhyme Book: With One Hundred and Twenty Illustrations by Arthur Hughes, Engraved by the Brothers Dalziel.
London and New York: Macmillan, 1893
Mark Samuels Lasner Collection, Special Collections<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Illustrator: Arthur Hughes (British, 1832 – 1915)
Engravers: Dalziel Brothers
[Frontispiece and title page], originally 1872
wood engraving on paper<\/strong>
This copy of the second edition of Christina Rossetti\u2019s book of poetry for children, Sing-Song, was inscribed by the illustrator, Arthur Hughes to the grandchildren of Edward Burne-Jones, Angela and Dennis Mackail. This edition was expanded with five additional poems and the lengthening of six poems that had also appeared in the first edition. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
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Translator: Teodorico Pietroc\u1f78la-Rossetti (Italian, 1825-1883)
Illustrator: John Tenniel (British, 1820-1914)
Engravers: Dalziel Brothers
Le avventure d\u2019Alice nel paese della meraviglie [Alice\u2019s Adventures in Wonderland]: Tradotte dall\u2019inglese da T. Pietroc\u1f78la-Rossetti; Con 42 vingette di Giovanni Tenniel
First Italian edition. London MacMillan and Co., 1872.
Mark Samuels Lasner Collection, Special Collections<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Translator: Teodorico Pietroc\u1f78la-Rossetti (Italian, 1825-1883)
Illustrator: John Tenniel (British, 1820-1914)
Engravers: Dalziel Brothers
[Mad Hatter\u2019s Tea Party], originally 1865
Wood engraving on paper<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
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Reading Dick and Jane with Me. Rochester, NY: Visual Studies Workshop, 1989.
Special Collections<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Fun Dick, Fun Jane, Fun Spot…
photograph and letterpress on paper<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n