U-M Library specializing in children's books

Children's books in a university library?

"Certainly," says William Gosling, curator of children's literature in the U-M Special Collections Library. "As scholarly interest in multiple areas of childhood studies expands, these materials become a rich resource to support that scholarship."

Researchers from the schools of Art and Design, Education Information, LSA and the Residential College use the collection to explore a variety of topics. The materials are being used to study changes in illustrations over the decades, how children and minority groups have been represented over the years in both text and illustration, the history of publishing, the collaboration of authors and illustrators, character development, the portrayal of historic events such as the space programs of the 1950s or the emergence of television in everyday life and the study of childhood itself.

There are more than 2,200 pop-up and moveable books in the collection that totals 15,000 children's works in a variety of formats and languages, together with author and illustrator archives, original artwork, posters and ephemera, and three dimensional objects.

Some children's books have been produced by authors better known for their adult works—Rudyard Kipling ("The Jungle Book"), Joyce Carol Oates ("Come Meet Muffin"), Carl Sandburg ("Rootabaga Stories") and Alexey Tolstoy ("The Adventures of Burratino"). Others represent the lifetime output of authors and illustrators dedicated to creating books specifically for children.

Elizabeth Goodenough, a lecturer in English, says, "Special Collections archivist Kathryn Beam has brought into my classroom tiny hand-held histories like 'Grandfather's Chair' by Nathaniel Hawthorne, the 17th century Puritan classic 'A Token for Children...An exact account of the Conversion, Holy and Exemplary Lives, and Joyful Deaths of Several Young Children' by James Janeway, as well as the grisly 'Slovenly Peter' and an array of Oscar Wilde's fairy tale illustrators." Goodenough has used some of these publications in her classes at the Residential College. "Seeing these objects juxtaposed provoked an understanding of the essential connection among books by, for and about children," she adds. "It enabled my students to discuss the evolution of children's literature as observed through the reflexive relationship of child and adult readers and writers over generations.

"Children's books, whimsical and instructive, provide an invaluable lens from which to view the history and culture surrounding them," Goodenough continues. "Apparently designed for a minority, this art form reflects and subverts the premises of dominant ideologies. It raises critical questions about perspective and the unexpected powers of feeling and imagination."

Gosling wants to expand the current collection of children's literature by focusing on books by 20th century authors and illustrators, and those authored and published in the Midwest, especially in Michigan. There also is strong interest in the pop-up and moveable book genre and efforts will be made to acquire examples of 19th century titles as well as 21st century new works.

"This is a relatively new area of focus for the Special Collections," Gosling says, "although children's literature has been historically acquired to meet library school and education curricula needs. Recent gifts and purchases have greatly expanded the collection, enabling research in a greater variety of disciplines."

For more information on the Special Collections Library, go to:
www.lib.umich.edu/spec-coll.

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