NCLC Articles

The following article was published in the Journal of Children's Literature, Vol. 31, No. 1, Spring 2005:

The Northeast Children's Literature Collection

By Terri J. Goldich, Curator, University of Connecticut

The University of Connecticut’s mission of teaching, research, and service is supported through the programs of the Archives and Special Collections, housed in the Thomas J. Dodd Research Center, that acquire, preserve, and make accessible specialized research collections. These collections include manuscripts, archives of personal papers and corporate records, early printed books, broadsides, pamphlets, maps, photographs, original art, and specialized research collections such as the Northeast Children's Literature Collection (NCLC).

The story of the Northeast Children's Literature Collection begins in the 1960s with the acquisition of some 600 volumes of 19th and 20th century

children's books from author/illustrator Nonny Hogrogian. During the 1970s the Library engaged in the selective addition of the best historical and contemporary children's books and manuscripts, focusing on prize-winners and works by New England authors and illustrators. In 1983, Billie M. Levy of West Hartford, Connecticut, placed on deposit 8,500 volumes from her private collection. Children's literature was an important topic at the Connecticut campus in those days, with the leaders of the field like the late Dr. Francelia Butler, teaching, publishing, and leading conferences and later the Peace Games, and thus in effect bringing the study of children's literature into the mainstream of scholarship. The NCLC holds the papers of Dr. Butler and the large number of audiovisual materials created in her classroom. Many of the greatest names in children's literature, including Maurice Sendak and Big Bird, visited the popular Butler classes.

This page is maintained by T. Goldich.