The Poky Little Puppy’s Guide to Online Finding Aids
January 6th, 2006
Last semester I toyed with the idea of writing a research paper on special collections of children’s literature and the implementation of EAD (encoded archival description). The vague idea grew from reading about the University of Minnesota Archives and Special Collections recent EAD implementation project, which included the Children’s Literature Research Collections (CLRC). Inspired by the Poky Little Puppy image on the CLRC stylesheet, I envisioned the title of my paper and presentation as “The Poky Little Puppy’s Guide to EAD”.
The paper never came to fruition, but I decided to use the idea partially for this weblog. On a regular basis, I would like to showcase online finding aids from children’s literature collections. This is an experiment, but I hope that it will be a useful one.
For the inaugural post, I have selected the Irvin Kerlan Papers. Ideally, I would have selected Janette Sebring Lowrey and/or Gustaf Tenggren, the author and illustrator, respectively, of The Poky Little Puppy, but those finding aids are among the few that are not online.
University of Minnesota alumnus Dr. Irvin Kerlan (1912-1963) gave his collection to the university in 1949, establishing one of the earliest children’s literature special collections in the United States. Although Kerlan was known professionally for his research on toxicity, his dedication to collecting children’s books would become his greatest legacy. Through his active solicitation of materials from children’s book authors and illustrators, he built a unique collection containing original artwork and manuscripts, as well as printed books. The Irvin Kerlan Papers reflect Kerlan’s commitment to children’s literature, documenting his work through professional correspondence, photographs, drafts, bibliographies, and other materials.
Entry Filed under: Bookmarks
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1. Margaret Toal | January 20th, 2006 at 9:46 am
I found your comment when looking up Janette Sebring Lowrey. I an 52 years old and grew up on “The Pokey Little Puppy.” I am a seventh generation resident of Orange, Texas, on the border of Louisiana. I am a former editor of the daily newspaper, an amateur historian and a freelance writer. I was astounded to learn about 15 years ago that Janette Sebring Lowrey once lived in Orange and one of her children’s books, “Rings on Their Fingers and Bells on Their Toes,” was based on Orange. Unfortunately, the people who would remember her have long passed and I have had a hard time finding any biographical information on her. Isn’t that strange, especially considering she wrote the bestselling children’s book of all times. Do you know anything about her and if so, could you pass it along. I will let you know if I find anything. If we get enough information, our history museum would like to display something about her. However, our history museum, along with the public library, are still closed and being repaired after sustaining heavy damage as the eye of Hurricane Rita passed over us on Sept. 24.