Visiting the Hollins Archives

We have a fabulous and gorgeous library at Hollins University, and part of that is our incredible archives! (Is that singular or plural?) At any rate, Isabel Folck and I have become fast friends, geeking out over some of the treasures she's been unearthing in our collections. Recently, she put together a collection of items for us to enjoy for my Picture Book Trends workshop (more on that later). We saw some really special things, and it's amazing that we have these treasures right here on campus. In no particular order, we saw...This beautiful picture book was hand lettered, and just so special! I'll have to get Isabel to remind me what this type of book is called, or maybe someone can leave a note in the comments? Look at how intricate it was!

I loved this peek inside book. The book acted as an accordian and the entire story unfolded before you through the little hole.
This was my favorite treasure - a hand-drawn sketch by Garth Williams, the illustrator I hold most responsible for making me want to become a children's book illustrator in the first place.
Look at that mark-making!
There was also a signed copy of Maurice Sendak's Higglety-Pigglety-Pop!
There was even a hand-written and illustrated thank you note from Maurice to our own Francelia Butler! Just, WOW! Something I wasn't expecting was a set of Japanese folk/fairy tales set on rice paper that was of a quality more like fabric than paper. The stories were (obviously) translated into English, and the art was stunning. I hope I can spend more time with these in the future!There were two pop-up books: Le Petit Prince and Tomie DePaola's Giorgio's Village.

I didn't expect to see mini Golden Book classics, that was fun! Or a signed fantasy print by Tim Hildebrandt.And my socks were blown off by a hand-letter-pressed and color printed copy of a Walter Crane comic books. WOWSA!!!
But probably the best thing in the collection was an original copy, with real fur (they didn't keep doing real because they had issues with mites and lice in the warehouse) of Margaret Wise Brown's Fur Family.

Isabel even had a print test, not yet cut or folded!All said, it was marvelous to be able to enjoy all these treasures and know that they are being safely stored for future generations to goggle over like we did!! Thank you, Isabel!