Collections
Children’s literature is one of the collection strengths of Special Collections, who hold thousands of books and magazines produced for children. The collection is particularly strong in its coverage of Victorian children’s literature.
Many of us will remember reading Ladybird Books as children. Special Collections holds over 20,000 original artworks, proofs and some documentation from the 1940s to the present day, including examples of the work of notable artists such as C.F. Tunnicliffe, Rowland Hilder and Allen Seaby. The collection covers the wide range of subjects Ladybird published, ranging from What to Look for in Spring to the recent Ladybird Experts series. You can also see how the artwork looked when printed in the collection of over 1000 editions of Ladybird books.
The Museum of English Rural Life holds many objects depicting rural childhood, including books, toys, games and clothes from rural communities. The Evacuee collection contains written memoirs, oral history interviews and some research material relating to former evacuees and war-children gathered by the Research Centre for Evacuee and War Child Studies at the University of Reading.
Context
The University of Reading is home to one of the world’s leading research centres for the study of children’s literature: the Graduate Centre for International Research in Childhood (CIRCL). CIRCL aims to promote and coordinate international and interdisciplinary academic research in childhood, focusing particularly on research in children and culture, children’s literature, and children and the media.
The Children’s collection and Ladybird collection housed at Special Collections is frequently used in teaching sessions, for example, with students from the Institute of Education and those on masters programmes dedicated to children’s literature in the Department of English Literature. Resources for schools inspired by collections have been created by The MERL.
Highlights
Children’s Collection
Children’s literature is one of the collection strengths of Special Collections, who hold thousands of books and magazines produced for children. The collection is particularly strong in its coverage of Victorian children’s literature. The origin of the collection is a gift of Victorian children’s books from Sir Frank and Lady Stenton, in the 1950s. In the 1960s the University Library established it as a separate collection and added other miscellaneous children’s books from its collections.
Ladybird Books and Artwork
Special Collections holds over 20,000 original artworks, proofs and some documentation from the 1940s to the present day, including examples of the work of notable artists such as C.F. Tunnicliffe, Rowland Hilder and Allen Seaby. The collection covers the wide range of subjects Ladybird published, ranging from What to Look for in Spring to the recent Ladybird Experts series. You can also see how the artwork looked when printed in the collection of over 1000 editions of Ladybird books.
Evacuee archive
The Evacuee collection contains written memoirs, oral history interviews and some research material relating to former evacuees and war-children gathered by the Research Centre for Evacuee and War Child Studies at the University of Reading. The collection mainly relates to evacuation schemes within Britain and the British children who were sent overseas to Canada, the USA, South Africa, and Australasia during the Second World War.