Educate! Amuse! In Color! The George M. Fox Collection of Children’s Books

by Alastair M. Johnston

There’s another children’s book show at San Francisco Public Library (through March 10th 2013), but this is the first since 1986 to draw on the library’s own superb resource: the George M. Fox Collection of Children’s Books.

The collecting of children’s books is a relatively modern phenomenon. There are great collections at Princeton (Cotsen Collection), in Toronto (Osborne Collection), Oxford (Opie Collection), UCLA, NYPL (Schatzki Collection) and in Florida (the Baldwin Library), that I know of, but the Fox Collection is remarkable, not only for its breadth but also for the condition of the books.

George Fox Sr was an executive at Milton Bradley and when they acquired the publishing firm of McLoughlin Brothers of New York, they didn’t want the firm’s archives and decided to dump them. Fox & another executive split them. The archives contained file copies of all their publications including a large cache of books by British publishers that were sent to them for consideration for republishing (or they may have been acquired to see what the competition was up to and ultimately to pirate them). They also contained the original woodblocks for some books as well as related ephemera. The original artwork that survived is at the American Antiquarian Society in Worcester, Mass. Fox added to the collection and gave over 2000 children’s books to the library in 1978. The current exhibition (the first since 1978) features over eighty examples of 19th-century color printing, especially color wood engraving and chromolithographs. Early hand-colored images are included as well. Highlights include “toy” and “moveable” books; work from the shop of Edmund Evans (who published all of Kate Greenaway's works) and many examples of fine British chromolithography from the firms of Thomas Nelson & Sons, Frederick Warne, Dean & Son and George Routledge & Sons.

McLoughlin Brothers’ motto “Educate and Amuse” marks an important turning point because, prior to the mid-nineteenth century, children’s books tended to be rather tedious and more about indoctrinating kids in good behavior than having fun. Catherine Sinclair’s Holiday House, 1839, is generally considered the first book written for children that does not have a built-in guilt-trip.

Tastes change over time also. The British books in the collection are sometimes marked up with alterations for the American market, or editorial comments. The Little Pig’s Ramble from Home, which is a personal favorite, has “Not much liked, very ordinary,” penciled on it. This is one of the titles that has survived elsewhere too and the Baldwin copy can be read on line at the childrenslibrary.org. In The Little Pig’s Ramble, Jack Pig puts on airs (a wig and top hat) and sets off to explore the world, only to be confronted with a pork butcher! Moral: Stay home if you know what’s good for you!

The books were often published in uniform series like “Uncle Buncle’s” or “Grandmama Easy's” and if the title was well-known it might generate sequels, as Ruth McGurk pointed out in her essay on the Fox Collection: “They are shameless in putting out sequels The Cock Robin story is spun into The Sad Fate of Cock Robin, Sick Robin and his Kind, Nurse Jenny Wren, Death & Burial of Cock Robin, Cock Robin Alive & Well Again and Mrs Dove’s Party. In the latter the guilty sparrow is punished by social ostracism.

And though he hopped in quite bold and undaunted,
He found not a bird that in kindness would greet him.”

He shoulda stayed in Las Vegas. Above is a spread from an 1850s book with hand-colored wood engravings: Mama Lovechild’s [sic] Life & Death of Cock Robin, published by McLoughlin Bros in New York from stereotyped plates.

Not on display is a personal favorite: the giant hen in Learning to Count: One, Two, Buckle my Shoe (by Augustus Hoppin, New York, Hurd & Houghton, ca 1870), but it is in the collection should you choose to explore it.

The books were advertised as cheap, colorful (some printed in ten colors) and above all avoiding vulgar sentiments. The big guns of children’s book illustration, Randolph Caldecott, Kate Greenaway and Walter Crane emerged in the late Victorian era and are well-represented in the collection. There’s even a Caldecott sketch “in the style of Greenaway.” As McGurk pointed out, “Walter Crane has a bent for whimsical detail.” She points out the Wedgwood bowls in the Three Bears rather luxe kitchen, labeled “Ursus Major, Ursus Minor, and Ursus Minimus”! Caldecott also wrote to Scribner's (who legally imported his books) complaining about the garish colors in the pirated editions of his books from McLoughlin and warning readers not to accept the cheap knock-offs.

Short but sweet, Four Footed Favourites by Mrs Surr, published by Nelson & Sons in London, and illustrated by Hector Giacomelli, appeared in the 1880s. The recently digitized SFPL copy can be read on the Internet Archive site.

The SFPL copy of Comic Insects is also found there. It has anthropomorphism reminiscent of Tenniel’s Caterpillar in Alice (and of course Grandville), but above all it has spectacular color printing from chromolithography, including gold (above, which is very tricky to achieve). Published by Frederick Warne, ca 1872, it was written by the Rev F A S Reid, illustrated by Berry F Berry, engraved by Dalziel Brothers and printed from plates made by Kronheim & Co.

Aunt Louisa’s Magic Modeller (London: Frederick Warne & Co., ca 1881) is a paper toy you cut out to build a replica of the Tower of London. These paper toys were very popular in France & Germany also and make the child a participant in the project rather than a proprietor.

More elaborate toy books include Six Mysterious Pictures from Chaos: affording great amusement and intense surprise among children and their little friends (London: Dean & Sons, ca 1878). Such moveable books inspired the Surrealists in their game of Exquisite Corpse. The show is edifying, and also amusing.

Laura E. Wasowicz, Curator of Children's Literature from the American Antiquarian Society, will discuss the history of McLoughlin Brothers (1858–1950), and their role as producers of color picture books in America. The lecture will be held in the Koret Auditorium of the Main Library, on Saturday, January 5th, at 2 p.m.
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Of Related Interest:

Draw Me A Story: Collecting Children's Book Illustrations.

A Movable Book Feast: The World's Greatest Collection Comes To Auction.

Movable Books Pop Up At Smithsonian.

Dean & Son Movable Books and How To Date Them.
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Secret Neighborhood Comes Out Of The Closet In San Francisco

The Street Fair/La Feria.

An Illustration From:
Crossing The Street Tales of The Portola,
By Kate Connell and Oscar Melara.
(All Images Courtesy Of The Portola Branch Library of
San Francisco Public Library.)

The Portola-- the natives pronounce it: "POR' da la"-- is a working-class neighborhood of San Francisco at the southeast rim of the city. It was long known as "San Francisco's Garden," because fruits, vegetables, and flowers for the entire city were grown in the district as far back as the early 1900's. In those days, the Portola was marked by windmills, water towers, farms, stables, greenhouses, and nurseries. But as in every neighborhood, over the years things changed.

The Bee/ La Abeja:
"Bzzz, bzzz around and around pollinating."

The Water Tower/ El Tanque de Agua:
"The La Grande Tank has water enough for all."

The Portola District was the location of San Francisco's United States Immigration Station. This made it the first American home for two successive waves of new immigrants: first German and Eastern European Jews, then Italians and Greeks. The Portola at one time had such a large community of new arrivals from the Mediterranean archipelago of Malta that it became the home of the Maltese Consulate. (Despite this obvious clue, Dashiell Hammett had shamus Sam Spade search for The Maltese Falcon not in the Portola, but in downtown San Francisco. Go figure...) Later settlers in the neighborhood were African American, Latino, Filipino, Chinese, and Vietnamese.

The Rabbi/El Rabino:
"He brought the Star of David."

The Herbalist/El Herbolario:
"With the wisdom of centuries, medicinal plants are prescribed."

When the Portola finally got its first public library in 2009, two residents, Kate Connell and Oscar Melara, set out to create a visual celebration of the history and daily life of their neighborhood. This dynamic duo are highly respected artists, whose work has been exhibited at the Alternative Museum of New York, the Berkeley Art Museum, and the Smithsonian Institution. But--like most American artists--they listened to their mothers' advice, and didn't quit their day jobs: Connell is a librarian and Melara is a bus driver. Through a series of town meetings on one city block in the Portola, the artists collaborated with their neighbors to record stories of a place where families helped each other during bad times, such as the 1906 earthquake and fire, and celebrated together in good times, like joyously pouring into the streets at the end of World War II.

The Earthquake Tent/ La Carpa Del Terremoto:
"Safe and comfortable, a temporal community."

The Parol/El Parol:
"Twinkle, twinkle little star at the Filipino Fiestas."

Together Connell and Melara have written and illustrated seven artists' books to be housed in the permanent collection of the new Portola Branch Library. These handmade books, Looking Up: Portola Skies; Tracing the Portola: A Neighborhood Atlas; Side by Side Stories; Portola Cognito (a giant book with give-away pages); Bonnie: Up at the Park / Shirley: Down on the Avenue (paired graphic novels); Drawing our Neighborhood; and Following the Pictures, a 3D book, will be on display throughout the Library for the first time on October 2, 2010. Collectively they make up a "social sculpture" called: Crossing the Street: Tales of the Portola. (Portions of the books can be viewed online at www. madeintheportola.org.)

The Artists: Kate Connell and Oscar Melara.

This is the second presentation of Melara and Connell’s two-part project, Made in the Portola. The first part, Portola at Play, presented film, music, games, and events to coincide with the 2009 opening of the new library. The Made in the Portola projects are rooted in the artists’ love of their neighborhood, and their desire to explore and reveal the nearly undocumented history of its everyday life. By working with friends, colleagues, neighbors, and the library staff over the last four years, Oscar Melara and Kate Connell have combined the public service of their everyday lives with their artistic vision. They have created works which prove that the district nicknamed "the secret neighborhood," has an identity and heritage worth cherishing. Crossing the Street will be on exhibit at the Portola Branch Library through February 25, 2011.

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Urgent Dispatch To Oz: Emerald City Library Needs Cash

The Seattle Public Library, one of the crown jewels of "The Emerald City" will be closing its doors, both real and virtual, for an entire week beginning Monday, August 31. The fact that one of the most book-friendly cities in the United States cannot keep its libraries open due to lack of funding is distressing in the extreme, and does not bode well for other municipalities.

Nationwide, public libraries are being used more than ever according to the American Library Association. The trend is evident at the San Francisco Public Library which reports increases of 30% in customers, and 15% in circulation of materials over fiscal year 2007-2008. When asked about the surge in demand for library services, Library spokeswoman Michelle Jeffers stated that the recently unemployed make up the majority of SFPL's new clientele. "The library has always been a place to hang out when you've got nowhere else to go," she noted.

What results is a classic Catch-22: the bad economy increases the demand for free library services, but the same downturn results in cuts to library budgets. Seattle is taking a bold step by closing completely (even the website will be inaccessible) for a solid week to place the library's dire financial state front and center before its citizens. Other systems, such as Los Angeles Public Library, are discussing closing facilities two days each month to deal with shortfalls in revenue.

No matter how such closures are implemented, the unemployed using the library's resources to find work will be facing yet another roadblock. Families checking out books, DVD's, and CD's rather than buying them will have to find free entertainment elsewhere. And the homeless, steady customers at urban libraries will have to seek respite wherever they are lucky enough to find it.

Altogether a desperate predicament requiring the help of the Man Behind the Curtain. He might just be the only hope for those who already have a brain, but are seeking a place to enrich it.

More on the specifics of Seattle Public Library's week-long closure can be found by following this link from the Seattle PI.

Posted by Nancy Mattoon