The Playful Antiquarian » Bookmarks

Breakfast with the Fairy Violet

vernica — Sat, 12 May 2007 05:33:28 +0000

As an adult with a full-time job and grownup responsibilities, I am a bit too old for story hour. But, thanks to the recent proliferation of widgets, gadgets, and feeds, I am finding ways to sneak storytime into my workday.

My new morning routine, for example, includes a quick glance at the International Children’s Digital Library (ICDL) Book of the Day. This gadget, which I recently added to my Google homepage, displays a different book from the ICDL’s collection each day. Although the selections are often contemporary books in languages other than English, on occasion, older books are featured.

This week I discovered Marianne L.B. Ker’s How the Fairy Violet Lost and Won Her Wings. Ker’s 1872 children’s book tells the story of a fairy named Violet who loses her wings in an accident and earns new wings through her service to a dying girl. In between losing and winning her gossamer wings, Violet meets the Fire-King, the Snow-King, and a magician, among others. Beneath the melodrama and Victorian sentimentality, there is historically interesting commentary on man’s relationship to the environment, urban living conditions, and the restorative power of nature.

Now that I have frolicked with the Fairy Violet among the flowers, I wonder what interesting characters ICDL’s Book of the Day will bring to my breakfast table next?

The Poky Little Puppy’s Guide to Online Finding Aids

Unknown, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

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.

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