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

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Attributed to Oliver Goldsmith (Irish, 1728–1774, compiler)
Mother Goose’s Melody; or Sonnets for the Cradle
Boston: S. Hall, 1800
10 x 7 cm
Houghton Library, Typ 870.00.5815
Gift of the Peter and Susan Solomon Family Foundation,
2020
By the mid-eighteenth century, Mother Goose had achieved
widespread renown with a shifting focus from fairy tales to
nursery rhymes. In 1786, American publisher Isaiah Thomas
introduced John Newbery’s pioneering Mother Goose book,
in a child-friendly size, to the American market to great
success. This version provides new illustrations, infusing a
greater degree of active and visually complex anthropomorphism;
the human physiognomy of the moon and the cat’s fiddle
performance underscore their human attributes.
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