The University of Oregon holds one of the country’s premiere collections of children’s literature, including manuscripts, artwork, and unique materials pertinent to the creation, publication, and distribution of the medium. The collection includes major donations from authors and illustrators from across the country and the world, including many who immigrated to the United States during the 1930s and 40s. With an emphasis on documenting an illustrator or author’s entire career and beyond, the materials include as much correspondence, both private and business, that can be acquired, in addition to whatever peripheral material may be available. Individual collections represent a particular strength of our archives.

The collection documents a unique period during which the genre of children’s literature accelerated its pace of development, thanks to innovations in the printing process, the expanding demographic of the children’s literature market, and the immigration of skilled masters of printing, drawing, and writing to the United States from the chaos of war-torn Europe. This post-WWII period became known as “the golden age” of American children’s literature. The content and lessons also changed radically during this time, as authors shifted away from the puritanical tone that defined pre-war children’s literature. The new style evoked the imaginative aspects of childhood, and characters displayed a more complex range of emotions and temperaments.

As a function of the period of American history from which much of the material is gleaned, the collection exhibits significant thematic strengths. A post-World War II climate, haunted by the war’s aftermath, tended to emphasize both patriotic values and American history. Hence, the University of Oregon collection is strong on stories and lessons from the Colonial, Civil War, and pioneer periods of American history. These stories, however, are told from an exclusively Euro-American perspective and reveal much about the historical narrative being promoted at the time. At play is a quintessential post-war American optimism, imbued with a sense of God-given greatness. Democracy, American entrepreneurship, and technical innovation are portrayed as core to the United States’ ascendancy as a world power. Such patriotic values are incorporated throughout, resulting in characters and stories that reaffirmed the ideals for which “The Greatest Generation” fought. The dark side of these narratives, of course, can be seen in the white-washing of American history that sugarcoats the harsh realities of the slavery of African-Americans, and represents the genocide of the Native American population as part of the inevitable “forward march of progress.”

Paradoxically there was a burgeoning interest in other cultures, as large numbers of immigrants entered the country. Many authors and illustrators, immigrants themselves, celebrated the blend of cultures as uniquely American, and integral to the American way of life. Stories also educated children on the cultural values of foreign countries, particularly those in the Far East, India, and Australia. While often problematic in their depiction of the racial “other,” these stories nevertheless sparked a generation’s enthusiasm for internationalism and non-Western narratives.