Animals Are Us: Anthropomorphism in Children’s Literature; Celebrating the Peter J. Solomon Collection

William B. Osgood Field; John McAndrew (Class of 1924)
and his wife Betty McAndrew; and Bayard Livingston Kilgour
(Class of 1927) and his spouse Kate Gray Kilgour. Thus, there
is no better way to celebrate a new era in Houghton’s history
than the exquisite marriage of the library’s legendary holdings
with the superb collection of Peter J. and Susan Solomon.
figure 5. Jerry Pinkney. “A few minutes later Sam and Sam
came back with Miss Cat, Mr. Elephant, Brer Rabbit, Mrs.
Monkey, Mr. Giraffe, Brer Fox, and Brer Wolf,” from Sam and the
Tigers: A New Telling of Little Black Sambo.
Substance, quality, and controversy (framed by
intellectual discourse) have raised the reputation of children’s
books since the 1980s. Consequently, all the books in this
exhibition are important. Children’s books have gained hardearned
respect and, whether geared to the young reader/
listener, the beginning reader, or the more advanced reader,
they are the portal to extraordinary realms. As Tony Kushner
wrote in tribute to Maurice Sendak, “Children’s literature
makes us fall in love with books and we never recover—we are
doomed.” 20
This exhibition, as any exhibition, presents only a
sampling, whether personal or institutional. Houghton Library
is fortunate, indeed, that through the years it has been guided
by prescient curators, such as Philip Hofer, Eleanor M. Garvey,
Anne Anninger, and Hope Mayo, among others. Likewise,
the library has been embraced by generous collectors, such as
notes
1 See Kaitlin Buckley, “A New Vision for Houghton Library,” The Harvard
Gazette, January 14, 2019, https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2019/01/anew-vision-for-harvards-houghton-library/;
Annie C. Doris and Sahana G.
Srinivasan, “Donor’s Collection of Children’s Literature Sparks Houghton
Library Renovations to Increase Accessibility,” The Harvard Crimson, January 25,
2019, https://www.thecrimson.com/article/2019/1/25/houghton-renovationsaccessibility/;
and Jacob Sweet, “‘A Sense of Belonging’: A Renovation to Make
Houghton Library ‘Open to All,’” Harvard Magazine, May–June 2019, https://
harvardmagazine.com/2019/05/houghton-renovation-renewal.
2 Justin G. Schiller, “Bibliophiles in the Nursery: The Gradual Legitimacy of
Collecting Rare Children’s Books,” in One Hundred Books Famous in Children’s
Literature, ed. Jill Shefrin (New York: The Grolier Club, 2014), 27–32.
3 Howard Pyle to Peveril Meigs, May 8, 1909, Archives of the Delaware Art
Museum.
4 This information was provided by Justin G. Schiller, a key figure in helping
build Mr. Solomon’s collection, in an email to the author, May 31, 2020.
5 Hope Mayo, “The Edward Lear Collection at Harvard University,” Harvard
Library Bulletin 22, nos. 2–3 (2012): 69–124. For a substantive account of Philip
Hofer’s life and career, see William Bentinck-Smith, “Prince of the Eye: Philip
Hofer and the Harvard Library,” Harvard Library Bulletin 32, no. 4 (Fall 1984):
317–347. For aspects of his collection, see Eleanor M. Garvey’s introduction in A
Catalogue of an Exhibition of The Philip Hofer Bequest in the Department of Printing
and Graphic Arts (Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard College Library, 1988).
6 Justin G. Schiller, email to the author, May 5, 2020.
7 Ibid.
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