One indication that Children’s Literature hasn’t been considered a subject of serious academic interest until recently is the relative youth of the major Children’s Literature library collections in the U.S. Most of the main collections in academic libraries started within the last 50 years or so. And still today, there are very few active, serious collections in U.S. research institutions. Luckily, Connecticut enjoys one of the best.
The Northeast Children’s Literature Collection (NCLC) at the Dodd Center began in the mid-1980’s and has attracted the interest of authors, illustrators, teachers, and researchers throughout the country and abroad. The NCLC collection “includes books, manuscripts, illustrations, correspondence, artifacts,” with “over 36,000 catalogued children’s books and serials, and the manuscript archives of 90 authors and illustrators.” Anyone interested in the various stages in the creative process, from ideas to sketches and drafts, from these sketches and drafts to book dummies, and from book dummies to the final published product, will find the NCLC collections invaluable. UConn students studying literature, writing, fine arts, and psychology all make good use of these resources. Authors use the collections to do research and look for inspiration. All find assistance from the curator, Terri Goldich, who is inspired by the idea that the “NCLC preserves the original output of some of the most creative minds of our time.”
Goldich recognizes that Connecticut is well placed for a Children’s Literature collection. Many famous children’s book authors live in Connecticut. Many, obviously, are quite impressed with the collections and the facilities that have been made available at the Dodd Center. The Dodd Center provides a modern facility with sophisticated processing, exhibit areas, and climate-controlled storage for their special collections. If you need more proof that the community of children’s book authors and illustrators are committed to NCLC, take a look at this list of Honorary Campaign Chairs for the NCLC’s Endowment Fund drive: Jackie Clegg, Tomie de Paola, Leonard Everett Fisher, Steven Kellogg, Hilary Knight, Leonard Marcus, Barry Moser, Robert Sabuda, Marc Simont, Walther Wick, Jane Yolen, and Ed Young.
The list of the NCLC manuscript collections provides further evidence of the value this community of authors and illustrators place in the NCLC. NCLC has received art and personal papers of Natalie Babbitt, Barbara Cooney, Jane Dyer, Tomie de Paola, Leonard Everett Fisher, Hilary Knight, Ruth Krauss and Crockett Johnson, Loretta Krupinski, James Marshall, Barry Moser, Anita Riggio, Richard Scarry, Marc Simont, Jos. A. Smith, Cyndy Szekeres, and others. Seeing the original artwork of some of these authors is a special experience. Curator Goldich maintains contacts in the Children’s Literature world so that authors in the northeast consider the NCLC when it comes time to donate manuscript material. Anyone interested in the process involved in children’s book creation will be thrilled to see how some of our most popular authors developed creative ideas into popular children’s literature.
Much of this literature can be found in the NCLC’s book collection. This collection includes the Billie M. Levy Collection of Illustrated Picture Books, the Phyllis Hirsch Boyson Collection of Children’s Literature, and the Black Beauty Collection. Billie M. Levy is the co-founder of the collection and has donated over 10,000 books. The Black Beauty collection includes over 450 discrete editions of the classic by Anna Sewell. Collection guidelines call for accumulating “late 19th and 20th century books by notable illustrators, or which represent publishing or artistic phenomena; …contemporary books that have won major national or international awards, [and] contemporary books that were authored or illustrated by individuals associated with the Northeast or the Eastern Seaboard.”
Thanks to the efforts of Goldich, some of these books and manuscripts will soon be digitized for inclusion in the International Digital Children’s Library. The Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) has awarded a National Leadership Grant to the University of Maryland to create digital collections of children's literature. NCLC, Boston Public Library, and the University of Minnesota are partners in a grant to digitize parts of their children’s literature collections for inclusion in the Digital library.
The Dodd Center is quite active in promoting and drawing attention to the NCLC and Children’s Literature in general. Among the major events of the year for the Dodd Center, and in benefit for the NCLC, is the Connecticut Children’s Book Fair. Held each November, the Fair celebrates children and the books they read with two days of presentations, book signings, and children’s activities. The list of famous authors and illustrators participating is always impressive.
The Dodd Center offers Travel Grants for researchers to “encourage use of unique materials in the Northeast Children's Literature Collection and to provide partial support to researchers who must travel long distances to consult them. Research Grants are intended for those researchers in the vicinity who need financial support in order to undertake a research project.” There is also a Fellowship Grant to provide significant financial support to a promising author and/or illustrator.
To promote the field of children’s book illustration, the Dodd Center co-sponsors the Raab Associates Prize, where students in the Fine Arts department at UConn submit artwork to illustrate a poem. The prize is awarded in the fall in conjunction with the Connecticut Children's Book Fair.
The Dodd Center is open to the public. All collections are non-circulating and in closed stacks. Other subject collections at the Dodd Center include Alternative Press, Artist’s Books, Connecticut History, Human Rights, Railroad History, and many more. For more information on the Dodd Center visit: http://www.lib.uconn.edu/online/research/speclib/ASC/index.html . For more information on the NCLC, visit: http://nclc.uconn.edu/ .
An edited version of this article appeared previously in Connecticut Libraries.
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