Last Friday, an essential exhibit for book lovers and onetime children of all stripes opened at the New York Public Library: The ABC Of It: Why Children’s Books Matter . Within, you can find the copy of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland that belonged to Alice Liddell, a recording of E.B. White reading from Charlotte’s Web, Nathaniel Hawthorne’s family copy of Mother Goose, complete with annotations on which sections were too scary for the children, the original Winnie-the-Pooh stuffed animals, and more delights. Take a look at some of the treasures the exhibit has to offer after the jump, and head on up to the NYPL to see the show in person before it closes next March.
Confederate spelling book, The First Reader. Adelaide de Vendel Chaudron. Mobile, Ala.: W. G. Clark & Co., 1864. NYPL, Rare Book Division.
One of the few copies of Aesop’s Fables with His Life: In English, French & Latin., illustrated by Francis Barlow, to survive the 1666 London fire. London: F. Barlow, 1666. NYPL, Spencer Collection.
Nathaniel Hawthorne’s family copy of Nursery Rhymes of England with annotations about which pages not to read to his daughter. J. O. Halliwell-Phillipps. Boston: Munroe and Francis, 1843. NYPL, Henry W. and Albert A. Berg Collection of English and American Literature.
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (Tom Sawyer’s Comrade). Mark Twain; Edward W. Kemble, illustrator. New York: C. L. Webster, 1884/85. NYPL, George Arents Collection.
A Book of Nonsense. Edward Lear. Pen and ink, ca. 1850s. NYPL, Spencer Collection.
The New-England Primer. Boston: S. Kneeland & T. Green, 1727. NYPL, Rare Book Division.
Reproduction of “Sleeping Beauty,” in Twenty-two Original Drawings. Arthur Rackham. Watercolor and pen and ink, 1906–21. NYPL, Spencer Collection. Three images from this collection will be shown in rotation during the exhibition, including original artwork.
Hokusai manga. Hokusai Katsushika. Biyō [Nagoya]: Tōhekidō, 1817. NYPL, Spencer Collection.
Letter from Lewis Carroll to the “real” Alice in Wonderland, Alice Liddell Hargreaves. Oxford, November 11, 1886. NYPL, Henry W. and Albert A. Berg Collection of English and American Literature.